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Jane Elizabeth Perkins of Blue Bower Bird is a British artist who combines beads and all things plastic to create amazing works of art.  In her previous life, she was a nurse and a stay home mother for several years. She yearned to further her native creativity.  So she went back to school and obtained her degree in textiles, focusing on found materials in her final year.

[Image] Girl in a Pearl Earring after Johannes Vermeer's masterwork
Jane said, "I started making hand-stitched brooches from old jewelry, plastic toys, coins, shells and other found objects. Some of the brooches were mounted on beach debris or driftwood to become a piece of art for the wall. I also made ‘memory brooches' from clients' own collected bits and pieces; odd earrings, broken jewelry or childhood treasures which could no longer be used but which the owner could not bear to throw away."

[Image] Marilyn Monroe after Andy Warhol  After that she got the idea to do portraits and as they say, the rest is history!  Her amazing portrait and famous art collection features celebrities and royalties as well as the iconic photograph of the orphan Afghan girl with haunting green eyes which first appeared on National Geographic.

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The old masters and impressionist paintings all inspire her.  She says she has done several versions of the Mona Lisa and Van Gogh's sunflowers still life.

[Image] Mona Lisa after Leonardo da Vinci

[Image] Sunflowers after Vincent van Gogh She adds, "I use anything of the right size, shape or color: toys, shells, buttons, beads, jewellery, curtain hooks, springs etc. No color is added - everything is used exactly 'as found'.  She goes to show there can be beauty in things all around us. Inspirational indeed.


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Hat tip to  Dusty Spring and Eva Maria Keiser on Facebook

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