My Take on June's Art Bead Scene Challenge

Profile on Red Meanders

formerly Jeanne d'Arc

Odelin Redon

1900

Pastel

Profile On Red Meanders is this month's inspiration piece for Art Bead Scene Challenge. It is a stunning pastel drawing Redon exhibited in 1903. It is a female head that stands out against an intensely red background, streaked with blues, greens, magenta colors. In the upper part, there is a kind of star on the left. Notice the orange, green, red and blue patches on the right, grouped together to form a nautilus shape. It can be interpreted as a night sky, fireworks, or phosphenes. It can also be thought to show the figure's inner mental space.

During his early years as an artist, Redon's works were described as "a synthesis of nightmares and dreams", as they contained dark, fantastical figures from the artist's own imagination. His work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche.

The art historian Michael Gibson says that Redon began to want his works, even the ones darker in color and subject matter, to portray "the triumph of light over darkness."

Redon described his work as ambiguous and undefinable:

"My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined."

 A dot of glue to hold the knot

There are so many colors in the art piece that it is hard to select just a few of the colors to work with. I love blue so I went with some of the blues. I used a polymer clay bead by Brooke Bock because of the blues and grays in it. In order to assemble my necklace I needed to tie leather cord to the focal. I was not too fond of having the wires on the focal show because the would give what I planned as a contemporary necklace a rustic look so I came up a plan to disguise them. I took some gray filigree end caps and curled their ends up to sit against the focal.

Filagree end caps attached

Since the filigree beads were gray they had the aded advantage of adding more gray from the art work to the necklace.  I cut the beautiful royal blue leather that I bought for this necklace, attached it to the wire by knotting it and putting a dab of glue just on the knot to make sure the knot stays.  

 Floral Necklace by BayMoonDesign

This multicolored casual necklace is made from upcycled vintage tin beads.   When I saw these chunky recycled tin beads, I knew they would make a fun necklace . They even have a mauve pop of color along with a variety of blues and blacks. The large beads go well with the large floral focal.  All the parts are combined by knotting royal blue leather. I finished the necklace with an adjustable knot so the necklace can be worn as a choker or short necklace.
  
In addition to using a number of the colors in the painting I feel that the colors of the necklace also show the theme of triumph of light over darkness.  What are your thoughts?