A chronicle of the meanderings, false starts (which in retrospect, while sort of embarrassing turned out to be highly instructive), epiphanies, selective apathy (still evolving), wild mood swings, opinions (subject to frequent change), and life lessons of an inveterate dabbler (and her latest dabblings).

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Late to the Party

I've been under the weather with minor health stuff the last several months, and super busy at the day job, so I'm just not keeping up with all my jewelry to-do's. Unfortunately, one of those to-do's was the June Component of the Month challenge at Art Jewelry Elements. The reveal was Thursday July 3, but I missed it! However I'm feeling a bit better and had a long weekend with the holiday so I got busy!

June was hosted by the multi-talented Linda Landig, a jewelry artist who also creates beads and components in polymer clay, and now ceramics. (To visit her Etsy shop, click HERE!) Linda made a fabulous assortment of her new ceramic charms and focals available for the challenge:
Linda has been designing jewelry on and off for over 30 years, and started with metal. From there she moved on to beadwork, indulging her love of color, and eventually began making her own jewelry components and beads, first with polymer clay, and now with ceramics.
Back in May (when I was feeling perky--unfortunately that turned out to be an intermittent thing), I snagged one of those sweet little sunflower elements (and actually remembered to photograph it before I started my piece). I love the rustic texture of the stoneware.
I noodled over it, and had a general idea what I wanted to do with it, I just didn't have the get-up-and-go to do it. So when some of my energy came back this weekend, I already had it half-designed in my head. I knew I wanted to introduce some sky blue, and would probably use copper for the metal parts. I thought and thought about the bail for it, started and stopped some other approaches, and finally came up with this:
For this, I used one of my folded end cones that I talked about at AJE this morning. I just modified it by folding over only the very ends so that it's a rectangular shape. I created a large loop with wire at the top (the wire goes through the hole in the pendant and then both ends go up through the hole in the metal cap, where you can shape them as you wish.) I attached an open metal tube to the loop for hanging.

Here's the whole piece:

The longest strand is three lengths of cocoa-brown Irish waxed linen (I bought whole spools--SQUEEE!!!!--from Element Beads on Etsy) dotted with recycled glass flowers in light blue from Happy Mango Beads; the second strand is tiny lime green glass seed beads, also from Happy Mango (with some brown seed beads in "dirt brown" from Fusion Beads thrown in); and the last strand is larger 8/0 seed beads in cocoa brown (also from Fusion Beads), a few Indonesian glass seed beads in a wonderful sand color from Happy Mango, and one little corn-yellow seed bead from a local shop.
I used my end cones from this morning's AJE post on the ends, with deertan lace in cocoa brown and some of my hand-forged large oval chain.

Linda's stoneware sunflower perfectly complements my style! And I adore the warm colors she chose for her glazes.

You can also visit Linda at her Facebook page, and stop by her blog!

And be sure to visit the other participants and see their creations!

Guests

AJE Members

23 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm so excited! I adore your necklace. Which is no surprise, because I love everything you make. But this is extra special to me! I love all the colors, textures and shapes you've included. Its a cornucopia of goodness!
    I'm glad you are feeling better and I hope this time it is not intermittent!

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    1. Thanks Linda! I'm hoping too! Your little sunflower told me just what to do, can't wait to see what else you create!

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  2. Oh my....I am always astounded at your creativity with metal - and color combinations! This is just stunning - well worth the wait to post this! Glad you are feeling better!

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    1. Thanks Patti! I am certainly glad to be feeling better too, hope it lasts! This was a really fun project, I think I must have been thinking of blue sky with those sunflowers...

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  3. This is really beautiful! A wonderful necklace for Linda's happy sunflower. I love all the elements you chose (and swoon over your hand forged chain) and really want to try those end cones from today's tutorial. What a great entry! I hope it is a harbinger of full recovery!

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    1. Thank you Ann! I forgot to say in my AJE tut that after doing the holes and the notches they should be annealed again to make them easier to shape. I hope you share your results if you give it a go!

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  4. Fabulous piece!!! I love that you took it outside the box. Perfect!

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  5. Ok, that rectangle cap is just fabulous! It makes me think the sunflower is growing out of a pot, albeit upside down. I love seeing the metal cap repeated in the strands, it really ties the entire piece together. What a gorgeous design!

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    1. Thank you Shirley! It is indeed pot-like, I hadn't noticed that! Or maybe a little roof on a house...with a sunflower instead of a front door.

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  6. OK this is going to sound dorky. I love the colors, the textures, the different scales. I love your cones.

    See?

    But I do. I find the use of chain and leather decadent. I like the three repeats of copper in bail and cones. I adore that one solo yellow bead.

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    1. Thank you Jenny! That's a huge compliment for me, coming from someone whose work I so admire! (You are inching me closer to making a bezel!) I have a whole baggie of those wonderful yellow beads and wanted to use more, but "one" seemed to be the magic number.

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  7. Saw this earlier and have to say it's a fave! I'm sorry to hear you've been not feeling so great and hope this past weekend is a good sign that you're doing better and we'll see you around more. Take care.

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    1. Thank you Janet! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I hope to be around more too, with more stuff to share!

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  8. You never cease to amaze me, and that bail is amazing.

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  9. Absolutely gorgeous! I don't know how you come up with these amazing pieces! Really sorry that you're struggling with ill health - mines been on and off for a couple of years - turns out I was quite deficient in B12 - started with vitamin B complex pill and 6 weeks later I feel like a new woman. Hope you get your fix soon,

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    1. Thank you for your very kind compliments! Sorry to hear you've been feeling crappy too, it's so frustrating, isn't it? Glad you found your magic bullet! I'm adjusting to a suddenly croaking thyroid gland (runs in the family) and it's just a matter of finding the right dose of hormone, but it's still really up and down right now--I either feel fab, or terrible. But this too shall pass....

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  10. Hi! i'm Anna, from Italy. I'd like your bijoux:-)
    If you can , come ti visit may blog
    Have a good week end!

    http://bijouxgioieearte.blogspot.it/

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  11. Oh poor you - I've been taking 150mcgs for years for hypothyroidism and I still get 'ill' like I mentioned before. But I'm sure it wont be long before you feel like yourself again. Hugs

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  12. So glad I found your blog thru Pintrest again! I got worried about you when I saw that your Etsy shop listings had dwindled a bit. I am sorry to hear you are dealing with thyroid problems. I have Hashimotos and recently went off synthetics and using Armor now and can't tell you how much better I feel! I know you will figure it all out, it takes time. On a jewelry note: I just bought some rivet/eyelet tools and coins, gonna give it a go and see what happens! Thank you for your blog and for sharing your amazing talent with us! I hope you are back to 100% very soon!

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  13. I am even later in finding you! This necklace is awesome! I love your caps, and all the subtle little nuances and details to your pieces! It's beautiful. I hope you are feeling better by now, too! :)

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