November Art Elements Inspiration - Fossils

Dinosaur Skelton Photo by Jon Butterworth on Unsplash

The inspiration of November's Art Elements challenge is fossils. Fossils are what's left of plants or animals after being buried in mud for a very long time until it turns into rock. Hard parts of animals, like bones and teeth, are the most common things that turn into fossils. Some fossils are the remains of animals that lived long ago and are now extinct, like dinosaurs. Fossils are excavated from many environments, including ancient riverbeds and lakes, caves, volcanic ash falls, and tar pits.

Plastic Dinosaur Toy

My love of fossils began as a young child. Like many children, I was fascinated by dinosaurs. Whenever I was near a museum with dinosaurs, I always made time for a visit. My own children loved dinosaurs. My collections of plastic dinosaurs and books grew as my children's collections were added.  I look forward to passing this collection to my grandchildren.

Photo by Michel Porro on Unsplash

As an adult, I moved near the ocean and  I became interested in ammonites.  Ammonites are perhaps the most widely known fossil.  They usually possess the ribbed spiral-form shell as pictured above. These creatures lived in the seas between 240 - 65 million years ago, when they became extinct along with the dinosaurs. Ammonites belong to a group of predators known as cephalopods, which includes their living relatives the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus.

Fossil Necklace by BayMoonDesign

This unique fossil necklace has a pendant inspired by an ancient ammonite fossils. I added the long fine chain to the ancient fossil. To complete my focal I added a neutral ceramic bead. The neutral colors in this boho necklace make it perfect for lots of outfits. It is also a light weight necklace that can be worn comfortably.

The one of a kind polymer clay fossil bead is by Brooke Bock. The ceramic is by Sandra Sapienza. It is a long 30 inches around with the focal hanging below 2.5 inches.

ammonite Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

This is a blog hop so grab a beverage and enjoy seeing what everyone created for this challenge.  We all love to hear your comments so please tell us what you think of our pieces.

AE Team

Jen

Lesley

Sue

Claire

Jenny

Niky

Guests

Cat

Tammy

Susan

Dawn

Michelle

Sarajo

Evie & Beth

Divya

Kathy

Thanks to everyone who participated. 

We're All Ears--November Inspiration--Names

Random Name Generators exist to help people come up with all sorts of names...for characters in your next novel, Scientific-sounding bird names, Music Band Names, Dragon Names and much more.   The FantasyNameGenerators website is far more robust and offers far more types of names. The list below are names generated to serve as an inspiration this challenge. We can pick one or more to create a pair of earrings that embodies this spirit of the name.  What a fun inspiration!.

Inspiration Names from Random Name Generator

With the holiday season and a craft fair right around the corner, I focused on names with red and green to serve as my inspiration.  I am thinking that folks will be looking for those colors.  

Fields of Jade by BayMoonDesign

From the list I selected "Fields of Jade" as my inspiration for this pair of earrings that remind me of a field of ferns. These fern earrings are made from natural brass sheets embossed with a fern pattern and painted with green and yellow patinas. The metal has a protective coating to keep the color vivid for years to come. I hung them on brass ear wires and added green Czech beads at the top. Natural brass ear wires add to the earthy look.

emerald abyss earrings by BayMoonDesign

Once again, these emerald abyss earrings are made from natural brass sheets that I embossed with an undersea pattern and painted. They are hand painted with yellow, aqua and green patinas to created this scene that I imagine in an ocean abyss. The metal has a protective coating and I hung the earrings on brass ear wires.

Ruby Steel Earrings by BayMoonDesign

For my last pair of earrings, I used a pair of red and green lampwork beads made by Susan Kennedy. I paired them with red Czech glass bells and silver earwires. I used sterling silver wire to connect the beads. I imagined all of the silver to resemble steel in these "ruby steel earrings".  These are perfect for the holiday season.  All of these earrings are available to purchase in my online store.

How did I do with this challenge?  I certainly enjoyed it.  Thank you Erin Prais-Hintz for this inspiration.