I was pretty excited for this week’s #weekendbeads theme on Instagram: art! I thought that it was so fitting given that I tend to think about beads as tiny works of art.
Years ago, when I had no kids and way more disposable income, I used to go to art auctions with friends a few times a year. Mostly we went just to look (and enjoy a nice day in Toronto) but every once in a while we’d bid. And occasionally win. Much like beads, I only bought what I loved, so each piece is special to me.
Despite having a fair number of pieces of art that I love, I had trouble picking which pieces to represent with beads. Also, most are too big to take off of the wall easily and I couldn’t get a decent picture without glare.
The first print that I did is one of a few that I own by French artist Emile Bellet; this one hangs in our dining room. Most of his paintings features vivid colours (the colours are more vivid in this one in real life ;)) and soft female figures. Some remind me of serene Mediteranean islands, while others give the impression of sun-drenched Canadian prairies, but it’s the colours and the gentle lines that I like.
The painting style of US artist Deron Cohen is quite diverse, but it was the gentle lines in Lovers #3 that drew me to this particular piece. I almost bought another by him about six years ago in an auction that he was running, but was outbid in the final minutes. So sad. Although I love the lines, I had a horrible time picking and arranging beads for the matching combo since the two figures flow over each other so fluidly. I finally split the beads into “male” and “female” with the Trollbeads Smiling Cylinder representing their intertwined bodies and that did the trick!
Another artist that I have a few prints from is Katie Berggren. She focuses on images of motherhood, so the Trollbeads Maternity bead was a must! I chose my Letter Bead Æ and Smiley beads to represent my own children and the joy they bring to me.
My final combo almost wasn’t since I forgot that I had planned on making one for this! We recently discovered a craft brewery called Collective Arts that features independent artists on their labels. As I was deleting extra photos from my phone on Sunday, I came across one I had taken of this little guy with his bright colours and mismatched eyes. So I quickly got my bead box out again and started picking beads. I really wanted to use one of the faces beads, but none of the expressions were quite right so I just stayed with the colours. It’s by a Toronto artist named David Loblaw.
The header image is a print of a painting by Itzchak Tarkay called Haifa by Sea Israel that hangs over our living room couch. I wanted to do a bracelet for it and ran out of time, but still wanted to share it!
Do you have a favourite artist or style of art?
What a fab idea to make bracelets to reflect works of art! They look lovely – I love Loblaw’s little fella – is it a mug? A vase? Also love the Tarkay – so vibrant!
Susan at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
Thanks, although the theme wasn’t my idea (but I was pretty excited about the theme, as you can tell!) :) There’s a group of people on Instagram who decide on the themes and then use the #weekendbeads tag to make it easier to find all of the pictures.
I’m not a huge fan of some of Tarkay’s other paintings, but this one I love. It’s slightly bigger than the image suggests, but I had to crop the picture. That particular Loblaw picture is actually on a beer can :D But you can buy some of his designs as prints or on other things, like t-shirts and bags.