Sunday Funday: Week 7 - Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month November

Week of November 24-30, End of November

Where has the week gone?!?  Oh, that's right, my last post was late...  

It's that time again everyone!  Reveal time for the Art Jewelry Elements blog Component of the Month!  This month we were all provided with gorgeous stitched twin ring components by the lovely Kristen Stevens.  Kristen is the other seed beader in the group, and we have really bonded in our shared techniques, love of art beads, and the complete difference in how we approach creating with those tiny glass beads.  You should check out more of her work here!  These are the little rings that we had to choose from, three of the gorgeous dark terra pearl colors.  

Kristen asked each of us what color we would like...well, of course I couldn't choose.  I love all of them!  So I asked her to just surprise me...and this is what I found when my package arrived in the mail!

Silly Kristen couldn't decide either and sent me a pair of each color!  Now my dilemma started.  How do you incorporate a seed beaded component into a seed beaded design and have the component remain the star?  What colors do you choose to really enhance the lovely subtle differences in the dark terra pearls?  What type of jewelry do you make to really showcase the components?  

I felt like earrings or a bracelet were the easy answers...but they wouldn't really leave me any room to do much more than attach the rings together.  So I decided to make a necklace.  Then I had to really think about color.  I needed a neutral or pseudo-neutral that wouldn't clash or compete with the components.  Here's what I ended up with as a palette.

   Transparent super light amethyst (looks much more pink/purple in the tube), was a nice mate to the plum terra pearl components, and nicely contrasted the denim and teal.  I knew that I wanted this color to be the main part of the palette, and decided on transparent and luster grays and silvers as the accent.  Do you see the little tiny 15's in the components?  They're transparent gray, the same color as the bag of seed beads on the far left.  At this point I also decided what type of necklace that I wanted to make - a netting amulet bag, incorporating the components into the fringe and the closure, with a simple strung strap.  Here's the start:

Ok, bad picture...I took this at night as a teaser for Kristen.  But I really love where the piece is going and how the components are incorporated.  So I reached the point where I needed to add the strap...and discovered that I only had one crimp left!  Doh!  I quickly ordered some more and worked on a few other projects in the interim.

Finished at last!  I really think that this design sets off the components well.  The texture of the netting doesn't detract, and the color of the beads lets the components stand out.  Lets look at all of the elements closer up.

The closure is a band of netting coming down from the back side of the bag, ending in one of the twin rings.  Then I stitched a tiny enameled butterfly button on to hold the band closed.  It fits through the hole in the center of the ring perfectly, but enough shows around the edges that you can still see that nice teal terra pearl.  I love how it looks like the butterfly has just alighted on a flower.  

The rest of the twin rings are in the fringe, dancing around like daisies in a field.  Each fringe that doesn't have a ring on it ends with 6/0 beads - clear with black stripes, matte with a rainbow finish.  I love the texture and bit of pearly color that they bring.

I thought you might like to see the back - you can really see the pattern in the stitching and the colors here.  I used a crystal sparkle silver lined seed bead for a teeny bit of twinkle in with the transparent light amethyst, and the transparent gray in the fringe and at the top of the bag as an accent.

When I strung the strap, I knew that I needed to add a bit of dark color, just so that the components looked fully incorporated.  So after a rummage through my seed bead and vintage glass boxes, I found a couple of vintage glass twisted pearl beads in a gorgeous teal, plus 6/0 seed beads in dark terra plum - an exact match to the plum twin rings!  I spaced them out with the light amethyst and sparkle silver lined 11's, plus the striped 6's from the fringe, and finished off with one of my favorite teeny sterling clasps.

I love this beauty shot!  You can really see the different colors (these dark pearls are so hard to photograph!)!  Each of them reminds me of a little daisy, just waiting for its own butterfly.  

Don't forget to check out what all the other participants made too!  The links are all listed below.  I'm going to go do that now - I just love seeing how everyone works so differently with the same components.  I will be back early this coming week with another post or two, and some sneak peaks of the holiday gifts I'm working on.  Until then, you can always keep up with me on Facebook, or check out my Etsy shop!  Thanks for looking!

Cindy Martin Shaw

Shai Williams

Karen Martinez

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

LesleyWatt 

MelissaMeman

Caroline Dewison

Francesca Watson

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr (you are here!)

Jennifer Cameron