Art Spark Designer of the Week......

YAY!!!  No sooner do I post asking for our readers to participate in our Monthly Art Spark Challenge and in comes not ONE,

 but TWO designs by Staci Smith. 

Stacy,

Both of these pieces are gorgeous and thanks so much for being the first person to upload these fabulous designs for our Art Spark Challenge!!!

So.... that makes this is a double post day....  

Read further down if you would like to read the post from just a few hours prior to posting our

When I was young, I wasn't good at too many things, so I read, A LOT! I loved prose and poetry, Poe, shakespeare and Lewis Carrol, just to name a few.

So this months Art Bead Scene challenge is actually based on a painting "ophelia" from Shakespeare. You can read my blog here about it.

I thought it appropriate for here too, since reading was what I was good at as a child, it was how I escaped. I became a part of the story, and felt like I had just lived a small adventure of my own, by the end of a book. I love the tragic beauty of poor Ophelia, and she really touches me. I hope this piece conveys that emotion.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Nameless here for evermore.

-Edgar Allen Poe

The focal is a hand drawn raven with a moon and stars, that is then elecro etched (I like to keep my studio green). I used gemstones and a handmade wire clasp, to make it into a chunky cuff bracelet, that no one could miss!