Art Bead Scene Blog has posted their inspiration for the June Challenge.......

Art Bead Scene Blog has posted another beautiful piece of art, this time it's dear to my heart.  I am unfamiliar with the work of Franklin Carmichael so I did a little more research.  His watercolor paintings are soft and inviting with each form drawing you in to take a closer look.  Franklin's painting reminds me of Grand Marais, MN and the North House Folk School.  His beautiful paintings are inspired by an area known as Carmichael Lake in Canada.

Grand Marais, MN, is a quaint little town filled with all the beautiful things in nature, complete with waterfalls, Boreal forest, wildlife, a harbor, and beautiful rugged shoreline.  It is nestled along the shores of Lake Superior.    The North House campus sits in a niche of the harbor, on the shore of Lake Superior, just as you enter into town.  I was able to find a front view from the Lake and a picture of the north part of the harbor, but not a back view of the campus which resembles the painting a little closer, but with a little imagination I think you will see the similarities. 

"Jackknife Village", Franklin Carmichael, 1926

Grand Marais harbor view

North House Folk School shoreline view

Art Bead Scene Blog June Challenge
The piece I designed for this month's Art Bead Scene Blog challenge revolves around cherished thoughts of my favorite place and the colors and tones in Franklin Carmichael's watercolor "Jackknife Village, 1926".  I used semi-precious stones in the color palate such as jasper, agates, jade, moukaite, amethyst, and freshwater pearls, wire wrapped them together to form the chain.  I selected a special focal for the necklace, a stone called a "heart stone", which I found along the shores of Lake Superior, in Grand Marais, MN.  I believe this particular stone is made up of Basalt.  Heart stones are a rare and highly coveted stone sought after by rock hunters of the north shore.  The ebb and flow of the tide and other natural events shape the stone into the form of a heart.  Generally, after a big lake storm, you will see quite a few people along the shorelines sifting through the rocks looking for treasures.  A few years ago, while walking along the shore, I happened to look down and found one that some unlucky person must have missed.  I have been hanging onto it for quite sometime waiting for its purpose to present itself.  I wire wrapped the heart stone and coil wrapped the drop.  I made the ring clasp from rich green Yixing clay and coil-wraping, and the toggle from freshwater pearls and coil-wrapping.  The necklace is simple and inviting drawing your eye from the heart stone, up through the multicolored beads, and down to the clasp.