Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge

I'm a big fan of the Art Bead Scene Blog - lots of lovely beads and the work of talented designers, what is not to like!  Every month they have a monthly challenge where a work of art is chosen as inspiration to create or use art beads.    I've been meaning to join in for a while but with one thing and another I haven't quite managed it but when I saw this months painting I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  The picture is Monet's "Walk in the Meadows at Argenteuil".  

I've always loved this picture and what caught my eye for this challenge was the meadow in the foreground.   I wanted to make a focal with strips of different colours of resin which emulated Monet's meadow.  

I had a lot of fun mixing up pigments to make colours for the resin that I thought suggested those in the painting.  What I wanted to do was to create different sections of resin in the focal so I cut copper strips to separate the resin colours.  I also decided to make some connectors using the same colours of resin, but I let the resin flow more organically in these.  I used three of these connectors in the necklace and one as the clasp.  I finished the necklace off with some peanut beads.

The focal is an abstract take on the painting, nothing like Monet's impressionistic style - I hope he won't mind!  

Just to let you know that my reveal date for the Bead Soup Blog party has changed.  It will now be on the 27th April - please come back then.  In the mean time - why not go and have a look at what everybody in the second reveal made - there is some lovely work out there.