SIA: Blush and Bloom + DIY Ponds & Lily Pads with Tree Jasper Layered Necklace

Marsha at Marsha in the Middle is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the painting "Blush & Bloom" by Laura Fox Wallis, a contemporary Master Silk Painter (one of 35 in the world). She chose this artist because she recently traveled to Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Scotland with the artist's mother, and she picked this particular piece because she loves lily pads. So do I, so I was thrilled with this choice!

Source: marshainthemiddle.com

There are so many wonderful possibilities for outfit creation in this gorgeous piece but I was very inspired by the lily pads and immediately thought of two things to put into my interpretation.

(1) A recent Curated Bead Box called "Ponds & Lily Pads" had a perfect selection of beads and findings to coordinate with this artwork;

(2) My palm frond blouse, while not technically featuring lily pads, had large vivid green leaves as well as some blush pink for the flowers and dark blue for the bird.

I decided to pair the frond blouse with navy but made things a little bit more interesting by choosing a marl cardigan with some nice texture and a skirt with very thin raised navy and white stripes that reads at a distance like a false plain.

OOTD 9/4/24

I continued the lily pad theme with a pair of bright green flats. I loved how this pop of color looked. (And you can see in this photo that the skirt really is striped.)

I combined green and beige stones and long gold spacer beads (that look a lot like metallic paper beads!) from the "Ponds & Lily Pads" Curated Bead Box and supplemented them with a few items from my stash to create the two pieces for my layered necklace. I had some shorter gold spacer beads as well as round knot motif gold beads for the shorter necklace. I found some tree jasper beads for the longer necklace and a tree jasper focal bead to make into a pendant for the shorter one. Tree jasper has a lovely mottled green and ivory appearance that felt perfect for the nature focus of the artwork, and it did a great job of pulling the green and beige tones of the necklaces together. The pendant for the longer necklace was another one-off chunky stone bead from a Boss's Bead Bag from Fire Mountain Gems that for the longest time I thought I'd never find a use for but then, bam, the combination of dark green, ivory, and taupe was just right for this piece.

My daily bracelet stack is based on a paper bead bracelet set I made in one of my common outfit color palettes of green, navy, and white with gold as the metallic {see page to bead details with Outfit #2 in this post}. The inclusion of the mixed metal spacer bead bracelet is a good indication that my earrings are not going to be in a matching gold color. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial}

I made these dangly cowrie shell bead earrings from items in the "Sea & Sand" Curated Bead Box. I know that with the addition of seashells that we're getting ever farther from lily pads and closer to a tropical beach, but I had made these earrings with this frond blouse in mind and just couldn't resist wearing them for the first time in this SIA outfit...even if a pair of bird and/or flower earrings (both of which I do have) would have been more strictly in line with the artwork! I had put these earrings on silver chain and silver ear wires so by choosing them, I ended up with a mixed metal look. Since my eyeglasses are rose gold, I basically wear mixed metals every day and have gotten very used to it.

Now for my favorite part of the post: sharing our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! I've no doubt said many times on this blog that mini rex rabbits are my absolute favorite breed, and the extravagantly rich fur and soft dewlap on this particular bunny was too gorgeous to pass by.

My outfit did not do justice to the muted neutral colors in this artwork, such as the swirls of grey and brown tones in the water. So I offer this alternative interpretation that goes all in on the soft, complex neutrals. While I do not support humans wearing fur in the modern era, I am absolutely on board with rabbits showing off how spectacular fur looks when worn as meant to be worn. Even the bird in the image is stunned into stillness when encountering this magnificent lady rabbit and her sumptuous fur. I am delighted by how adding a bunny to the empty corner elevates the delicacy, allure, and elegance of the artwork significantly. It's almost like it was left bare intentionally to make space for some natural beauty to enhance the artistry.

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

This is the third time I've worn this frond blouse since mid-June, and when I looked at my OOTD photos for the previous summer 2024 wears, I had a good laugh. Such is the power of a good outfit, that you find yourself repeating it (even if it is unintentional as it was in my case!). This isn't merely a Pleasing Pairing; it's a Favorite Foursome at work!

OOTD: 6/17/24 & 7/2/24

My layered necklace for the first outfit was a DIY multi-strand seed bead necklace in shades of dark blue plus my go-to gold tassel necklace - a fairly restrained combination by my standards.

In the second outfit I layered three necklaces for a more maximal look: two necklaces with various metallic rings joined together plus my DIY green sea glass and beige ceramic turtle necklace (as discussed with Outfit #2 here).

Daily bracelets tacks included a more intensely green version of the navy, green, white, and gold paper bracelet set and a many-shades-of-green stack with no paper beads at all.

The two pairs of bead soup earrings I wore in these outfits...well, they aren't quite identical but they are very similar. This is what happens when you go crazy making earrings without keeping track of what you've done - you might end up putting some of the same great beads together more than once! The top pair with the white glass pearls were made to go with the navy, green, white, and gold paper bead bracelet set. The second pair with the dark green quartz (made later) were made to go with the green and black marl cardigan I'm wearing.

Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating (and Improving) Art post!

To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on Marsha in the Middle.

Would you have centered in on the lily pads, the flowers, the bird, or some other aspect of this painting to create an outfit? Do you repeat outfits or major parts of outfits? Do you wear mixed metals?

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