A "Light & Airy" Week Forty Two

Is Upon Us !

This week's entry is looking on the lighter side of life. For this week, I focused on using a lighter colors in both my metal selection and my stone color. Chalcedony can be so beautiful and for this Art Nouveau inspired pendant it complemented the design just right. I have to admit, I love the color blue, but I don't design a lot of piece in this color. It is such a wonder color and this year I have to break out of my "Green Mode" and expand my color pallet to include more of the blues, reds, and oranges within my designs. I have spoke with other artists and they say that they go though the same battles as well. It is great to know that I'm not alone in battle to expand my color horizons. I also will be working with different metals as well . So look forward to some new looks coming up just around the corner. I'm working on designs for the late Summer /Fall season of Art Shows and let's not forget the Christmas season ( HO, HO, HO!). Well this piece was great fun creating and I'm happy to say it as already found a great home. Thank you Suzy G. for appreciating my work and being a inspiration to me as well!

Well I thank you All!

Have a Great Week!

Take Care and Keep Creating!!!!

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

Week Forty One of My Weekly Creative Challenge

Stepping into the "Rich Colors" of Week Forty One of My Weekly Creative

Challenge

This has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I'm working to keep on top of all of this fun. I will be setting up for a trunk show with other local artists at a local store that features wonder "Arts and Craft" furniture and home accessories in the Tower Grove area here in St. Louis. Then the next weekend I will be at a women's conference at a major church here in Earth City. Also, of course, there is always some major event coming up at the bead store I work at. My boss always is planning new events to excite her customers. These are the times that "creating new pieces" can be challenging.

This piece was fun because it was based on an design I created for a great up and coming jewelry designer. Melanie G. has been working nonstop on creating a wonderful body of work and I helped her by making a copper metal component for one of her beautiful necklaces. After creating the design, I can up this this pendant based off of the original piece and fell in love with the rich color of the copper and the texture I created in the metal. Then I found these great fresh water brown pearls with such rich colors that I felt would be a great fit for this pendant. This was truly a fun project and I thank Melanie G. for her inspiration. I hope you Enjoy "Melanie's Garden" Have a great week and a wonderful Memorial Day!

Take Care and Keep Creating!

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

Week Forty of My Weekly Creative Challenge

Week Forty!!!!!!!

WOW

The Challenge is ON!!!!!

I can't believe I have been creating new works and blogging about then for 40 Weeks. As I was setting up the graphics for the blog I look at the last entry and couldn't believe my eyes. 40!!!! Really!!!! Wow!!!! It has been fun and trying at times! I find it harder to stay on course when I'm getting ready for an art show. During that period, it is hard to work on pieces, get displays together for the event, get together the supplies for the show, and blog all at the same time. This is what they call "Running a Business". I have been working on this business steadily this past year and even though it can be crazy at times, it is worth it when I get such great feedback from all of you. That's what make blogging so rewarding and I thank you all!

Well let's take a look at the new addition. I want to work on more Nature themes for the "Art within Art" line and little flying creatures are the focus this week. I will be adding to the series very soon. This piece was fun because of all of the fun parts to this piece such as the use of brass and copper, the wire wrapped elements and colored pencils and decorative papers to create the wings. I loved this one because it let me be creative in so many areas. Well enjoy "Regal Moth" and have a wonderful week!

Take Care and Keep Creating !

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

Week Thirty Nine of My Weekly Creative Challenge

Week Thirty Nine of My Weekly Creative Challenge and Mother's Day Too!

How Cool!!!

Well let me start with an Happy Mother's Day wish to all of you moms out there and I would love to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Katie B.

Without her(and my Dad), I would not exist!

Thanks Mom!!!!!!

I Love You!!!

This week is the week to show off Nature and the use of Mixed Metals as well. As I have stated in earlier blog entries, I don’t work with brass as much as I work with copper or silver and for 2010 this will be changing. This week I wanted to show samples of both patinas and the use of mixing metals to give my pieces that extra something. I really liked the way the brightness of the brushed finished brass worked with the liver of sulfur textured copper. I enjoyed working in both of these techniques and I hope you will enjoy the "Fruits of My Labor" as well.

Take Care and Have a Wonderful Day !

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

Week Thirty Eight of My Weekly Creative Challenge

"Color My World" in Week Thirty Eight of my "Weekly Creative Challenge"

I love adding color to my designs. That is why I create colorful drawings to insert into my pendants, or add wonderful crystals, gemstones, pearls, and Czech glass to my designs. I'm now on the hunt to find and experiment with a new way to add color to the metal I use "itself". I use Liver of Sulfur to darken my metal work. I really like how it enhances the texture that I add to my metal work. Now I want to add "real colors". So I'm now working with patinas to add color to my work. This is one of my designs that I truly enjoyed working on. I love that I can add color to different components to my designs. It has been fun so far and I think this technique is a" keeper". Check in with my blog to see upcoming attempts to add just "a little something extra" to my work in the future. So enjoy the new addition "Growing , Growing and Growing". Thank you for checking in.

Take Care and Keep Creating!!!

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

Week Thirty Seven of My Weekly Creative Challenge

"Hanging Off the Edge" in Week Thirty Seven of my Weekly Creative Challenge

Well I have been working on pieces for an upcoming show for about 4 weeks straight. I haven't gotten a chance to connect with you all for a long time( just about four weeks to be exact). Sometimes working on new concepts can be rewarding but it can definitely take over your waking hours and you can loose track of time. I was reminded of that fact from a very wonderful lady in the UK. Diane S. of ArtHobbyCraft.com blog sent me a little note to check on me to see if all was good here in Missouri. I felt cared for and "missed". Diane truly made my week and I just wanted to give her and all the great people on AHC blog a GREAT BIG SHOT OUT & THANK YOU!!!

Well this week's entry is a beauty with an India flair. This "Enchanted India Beauty" is the newest addition to my "Art within Art" line. I really enjoyed working with the brass this time. The drawing and the choice of beads for this design worked well with this metal. Well I hope you enjoy this new gem. I missed blogging and I'm glad to be Back!!!!

Take Care and Keep Creating!

Allison B

www.alnbcollections.com

www.alnbcollections.blogspot.com

P.S. Please Check Out

http://arthobbycrafts.ning.com

It is a great site with a Wonderful Network of Wonderful Artists!!!!

Week Thirty Six of My Weekly Creative Challenge

A Small Break can do you some Good in Week Thirty Six !

Well I needed a little time to get more supplies and to work on this technique for this weeks entry. I have wanted to start playing around with adding color to my metal piece and this was my first creation in which I used a patina in my work. I sketched this series of pieces a while back and I have been working on getting the colors I wanted. As time goes on, I will be adding new pieces to the series I call my "Single Bud" series.

I also got to experiment with wire wrapping as well with this pendant. At my job they had a wonderful bracelet making class and I love the techniques so I used it as a decorative link in this pendant as a added source of texture and color. I love learning new techniques and merging them into my design style. I thank Mariah M. for the wire wrapping lesson and I look forward to showing more designs from this series very soon.

Take care and Keep Creating

Allison B.

www.alnbcollections.com

alnbcollections2@yahoo.com