Convergence III Book Is Available and Guess What?

The International Society of Glass Beadmakers' Convergence III show's book is now available.  I was so excited to see my necklace in the center spot of the cover!

Convergence III is a juried traveling show of glass art jewelry that was designed with the theme of interpreting a piece of art.  If you have seen Magritte's "Son of Man" - you know, the man with the apple covering his face- and a cloudy serene background, you will recognize my inspiration.

But to be honest, I am just as in love with other artists' work in this book.  There is so much eye candy, they will gain 20 lbs just by looking at it.  (not really.... but you know...I'm trying to make a point!)

You can buy a copy of this and the Convergence II book (not on the cover, but I'm in it as well) by going here and here.  I'm ordering one of each today

Jewelry Inspired From Famous Art

I was really happy that my necklace, "Head in the Clouds" was chosen for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers' Convergence III show.  The juried show features jewelry inspired by art, and I have loved this painting, The Son of Man by Rene Magritte for a long time.  So obviously, this is what I chose.

I guess the painting received a new audience in the movie, The Thomas Crown Affair.  I didn't see the movie, but I'm glad more people know about it.  According to Wiki, this is a self portrait of the artist.

 Perhaps some day I might do a parody self portrait with a piece of fruit in front of my head.   A pineapple or something larger than an apple would better hide my face.  Do you have an idea of a better fruit?

Hope you like the necklace.  I'm not sure of where it will tour, but I do know that it will be for sale at the show.  Oh, and I made matching earrings for it...two pairs.  One is of the green apples, and the other is of the hat.  Which do you think I should include?

Glass Sculptural Interpretation of Magritte's Work and Combining Two Mandrels To Use As One

In an earlier blog, I showed you a chair that was influenced by artist Rene Magritte's "Son of Man" 1964 painting, pictured below.

Paul McCartney apparently is a big fan and a collector. I read that he named the record company "Apple" because of this painting. I do not know if that is true.

I love this painting also. It's a self portrait of Magritte. He wrote about it, and he speaks about what we see is really obscured by what we really are striving to see.

Something to think about.

This is a two piece sculptural soft glass bead. I wear it on a simple interchangeable pendant. Sometimes it's a pendant, but often it is worn as a stick pin instead. When it's a pin, then it can be worn firmly in place and anywhere I want.

The clothing bead was made on a 1/16th mandrel. You can't see his neck, but it's quite tiny and under the face bead. I have it so that if there is some vertical wiggle in the two beads, it still looks connected because the neck will show instead of a blank space.

The head was made off the end of a hollow mandrel. So it is wide at the bottom and then I put a dipped 1/16th mandrel through the hole of the mandrel. It sticks out a bit, so that the hole through his head is small and his head won't move around.

Actually I'm using two mandrels put together to get a wide bottom and and small hole at the top. I use other mandrels that are premade to do the same thing, but I needed a bottom hole a certain size and this fits the need.

Hope this gives you a little something to think about and puts you into the mad scientist frame of mind. There's nothing like finding ways to solve your design dilemmas and have them actually succeed. Have you done something a little bit differently that solved a problem for you?