Tapestry Snowflake Spinner Christmas Ornament

This is my selection for the 2012 Art Bead Scene Christmas Ornament Blog Hop and it has been quite a journey from concept to completion.  Once I decided to participate in the Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop, I had to come up with a unique design for my art bead and since I was making snowflake shaped ornaments, what better design for my art bead than snowflakes.  These were created by making a reverse image mold of one of my favorite snowflake stamps so that the snowflakes would actually be raised above the surface of the bead itself.

The next challenge was figuring out how to make the spinner portion of the bead work correctly.  If the hole down the center was not perfectly lined up, the art bead would not spin!  It took me several attempts before I got the details worked out on that one but everything fits nicely now and spins!

So folks, according to Lisa Pavelka "If it's a spinner, it's a winner!"  What do you say? Is it a winner?

This ornament along with my personalized Tapestry Spinner Christmas ornaments can be found in my Etsy shop at http://ashpaints.etsy.com.    

Here are links to other artisans who have participated in this Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop.  Be sure to click on each link and check out what each of them has designed for this annual event. 

Art Bead Scene
Humblebeads
Treasures Found
Song Beads
Viki O'Dell
Sue Beads
Modern Nature Studio
Diane Hawkey
Suburban Girl Studio
Jen Judd Rocks
Ellie's Bijoux
Island Girl's Insights
Life By The Seat Of My Pants
Too Aquarius 
Shelley Graham Turner
Artfully Ornamental
Charis Designs Jewelry
Harrison Hollow Designs
Silver Nik Nats
Bead Soup Mix
Toodles and Binks
Bead Recipes
Play Sculpt Live
BeeTree by M.E.

My entry for the Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop

The time is almost here‼!  Back in late October I heard about something called an Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop. In checking further, I learned that this is the third year that Art Bead Scene has hosted this Ornament Blog Hop.  I was intrigued so I investigated further and learned that to participate I would design an ornament using an art bead.  My first thought was I love making Christmas ornaments.  My second thought was what exactly is an art bead – so I went to the Art Bead Scene website and learned that: 

An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist.

I clicked on some of the links and saw that art beads range from very simple to very complex and can be made of just about anything!  But my best discovery is that I make art beads‼!  Who knew????  Since I do make beads of all sorts, sizes and forms from polymer clay based on whatever project I am working on at the time, I decided that an ornament made using an “art bead” would be a great challenge so I signed up!

Now the time is drawing near for my Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop entry to be revealed.  It’s been an interesting and productive challenge and involved working through several prototypes before I was happy with the end result.  The creation of my art bead involved working with alcohol inks, gold leaf, metallic paint, custom mixes of polymer clay, deeply etched rubber stamps and a handmade mold. 

The inspiration for my ornament goes back to a polymer clay cruise I took in August with a group of  polymer and metal clay artisans. Each artisan was invited to make charms to exchange with everybody else.  One of those charms was based on a Lisa Pavelka design that involved using two elements that were independent of each other so that they could “spin”. 

 My ornament is unique in that it hangs flat but it also spins!  To quote Lisa Pavelka, “If it’s a spinner, it’s a winner!”  Check back on December 4^th to see if you agree.