Challenge - Lascaux Cave paintings


The theme this month over at the Art Bead Scene is the Lascaux Cave paintings. This was a fun challenge for me. I was forced to work with earth colors, something I rarely do, and I also tried to keep the materials to a minimum. Sometimes I like to limit myself and force myself to work within certain parameters. So I took out my beads and selected a handful to work with.

I started with one of my large porcelain ovals. The glaze on this particular piece looks so incredibly "cave" to me that I just had to use it. The warm rust background is interrupted by lines that mimic both the cave drawings and the natural striations in the stone itself. After that I selected two beautiful pieces of gray fossil - kind of an obvious, cave-ish, ancient-looking choice.


I made these "spears" (above) after looking through a book about the cave paintings and realizing that the only straight lines depicted anywhere in the drawings were of weapons used to hunt with or antlers on the deer. So I made these three spikes with copper wire and glass beads just to break up the design a little (though I think they look more like cattails, which isn't entirely a bad thing, just not very cave-ish).

I stacked some unusual irregular wood chip beads which I think provide a nice textural contrast to the smooth stone and porcelain. And that is about it! Some glass beads in a nice rusty red color, some copper chain and a ring pretty much wrap up this piece. It was nice to do a piece that was primarily designed around color, texture and materials that would usually not be my first choice. Working outside of the comfort zone is a good thing. :)

Comments

Dani said…
Great necklace!!!

Where are you going to be on Saturday???
Lorelei Eurto said…
Outstanding, as usual!
Round Rabbit said…
Thank so much, everyone!
Dani, I will be in #161 on Saturday. It looks like it's in front of the library.
mairedodd said…
gorgeous... i love the large pendant and the spareness of the design... beautiful...
Gardanne said…
Very nice, I like how you used those spears as a connector.
TesoriTrovati said…
This looks like something that was unearthed... I love all the textures and colors! Great piece.
Enjoy the day!
Erin
Silver Parrot said…
This is a great piece! Surely captures the theme of the challenge perfectly!
Anonymous said…
beautiful work!
Unknown said…
gorgeous work!

Emi
Bobbi Ann said…
Oh...this is just gorgeous! I love it! Fantastic work!
Hugs...
Bobbi
LDWatkins said…
Beautiful piece.I like the natural look of it.
Anonymous said…
Absolutely gorgeous necklace!! So creative and simply beautiful!
Erin Siegel said…
This is just gorgeous! You know I like the earthy style of this! :) You are always so creative with your concepts! Very inspiring! The whole piece conveys the feeling of the landscape in the cave paintings! I like the wire "spears"! They have the feeling of tall grasses on the plains to me.
Thanks for sharing this post about paintings, that necklace are really very nice. The complex painted caves of Lascaux are located in the Dordogne region. The awe-inspiring paintings are also described as ‘the antediluvian Sistine Chapel’.1200 visitors daily visit the cave. The initial climatic situation had been re-build and maintained with the assistance of a fully-automated system. The original caves were made in 1980 called as Lascaux II.
Wow, amazing necklace. Lascaux is a must visit for Paleolithic cave paintings. The basic designs consist of huge animals. You can see around 2000 figures in this cave. The figures are divided into animals, human beings and abstract things. The Great Hall of the Bulls is very famous. The painting of four huge bulls is amazing. The best time to visit this caves is between July and August.

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