Well, it's the end of the month again, and you know what that means! It's time for the great Art Jewelry Elements Blog Component of the Month challenge.
This month we all had the chance to play with one of Linda Landig's beautiful oak leaf and acorn pendants. I chose this little guy:
I loved the pale celadon green of the background, and the orangey brown of the leaf and acorn. For me, this type of green is very reminiscent of Home (Oregon/Washington), like trees through mist or rain. Oak trees are also super plentiful back home, so this month I decided to make a tribute to fall in the pacific Northwest.
Then I did something I've NEVER done before. Last week I took my component to work with me so I could sketch at lunch...and left it there over the weekend by accident! Now when I realized that the reveal was today, I knew I needed to get to work and make the majority of the necklace without the component, in the hopes that I could stitch or tie it in the middle at the last second. Here is what I came up with.
I had in my head a design with long green fringe, and a pile of leaves "raked" into it, but I didn't have time to do something fully stitched. Designs like that usually require me to have the main focal on my tray for color choices and shape/size judgments anyway. So I came up with an idea to incorporate waxed linen fringe, stitched seed bead fringe, and my favorite leather lace. Do you see the empty set of holes above the green fringe? Guess what goes there...
I took my linen and a couple of seed beads to work today, just so I could attach the component at lunch and finish the piece. I simply passed the waxed linen through the holes I had made before, tied a couple of overhand knots to attach the piece, and finished off the fringe with some more seed beads. (Side note - doesn't that foil inside the large Indian lampwork bead remind you of a crunchy leaf?)
Dangling from the seed beaded fringe are laser cut wood oak leaves from an artist in Gatlinburg TN. I drilled little holes in the top for stringing. Alternating with the wood leaves are some vintage lucite leaves too - to give a little bit of diversity. I love the sound the lucite and wood makes when the necklace moves - almost like leaves rustling across the ground. I moved to 8/0 and 6/0 picasso finished seed beads for the waxed linen fringe. I love the mossy frame it creates for the dangling leaves.
And the beauty shot. I fully admit to some trepidation when I realized I had to make this piece without having the component in hand...but I'm pretty happy with the end result.
Please hop along and see what everyone else made with Linda's gorgeous creations. I'm off to do just that right now!
