February Art Bead Scene - The Kiss

February's Art Bead Scene Contest was inspired by The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I can't believe that they have picked two of my favorite paintings in two months for inspiration. I love Klimt as an artist... there are so many layers and interesting details in his work. His dots and shapes add so much texture and interest. Check out the painting on the contest site.

The Kiss was painted between 1907 - 1908 in what is known as Klimt's "Golden Phase" during which time he utilized a lot of gold leafing in his work. For me, it was the luminous golden tones that make this painting so warm and passionate.

Because of the details of this painting, there were many ways to go artistically. One of my LEST Team members, Marcy of Studio Marcy, did a literal interpretation. It was amazing.

After several false starts, trying to pick up frits and such to play off of Klimt's dots and lines in this piece, I sat at the torch very frustrated. As I sat there visualizing the painting in my head, all the gold in the painting was what kept coming to mind. And I realized the beads I was making were way too complicated...that I could simply encase some 23K gold foil with crystal. As luck would have it, a new metallic glass arrived and I couldn't resist adding some surface decoration.

I like the way the focal and simple spacers came out - although one painter friend declared them a tad too "happy" for Klimt! LOL!

With all that gold, I couldn't fall back on my silver stash for the finished jewelry piece. I priced real gold, checked the old pocket book and opted for gold plated instead!

I wire wrapped the beads with jet 2x Swarovskis and wire wrapped a few more at the back connecting that to a thinner wire with numerous 3mm jet 2x bicones, wrapped into an oval. For the clasp on the other side, I looped some 16 guage gold plated wire and hammered it for texture.

The necklace is 25 " from end to end but hangs more like a 20" due to the layout of the beads.

This piece was made exclusively for sale on GirlPowerGolf.com