Every month the talented team of jewelry artists at the Art Jewelry Elements blog hosts a giveaway of an artisan component. This month's component was crafted by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl studio. Look at this collection of gorgeous stoneware pendants!
Her process for creating these lovely r
ustic stoneware coin pendants is described in this post. Fascinating!
With fingers crossed to win one of these pendants, I put my name in the hat and received an email message that I had WON. Yea! The day the package arrived was mighty exciting. Which color had Diana sent? Tucked safely inside some bubble wrap was this lovely piece. Thank you so much, Diana!
For me, this challenge certainly lived up to its name. I've never before designed jewelry with a donut-shaped pendant like this, so I must admit that it sat on my studio table, lonely but not forgotten, for weeks while I mulled over the possibilities.
One goal that I had for myself on this project was to keep it simple, focusing attention on the beauty of the pendant. Visions of complicated necklace bails kept popping into my brain - metal, rivets, texture. Be gone, complicated! Keep it simple.
Time marched on, and soon I received a message from Diana reminding me of the reveal date. The pressure began to mount. Time was short, and I had to get this project done. It's a weird thing how the creative process works. Surrounded by thousands of beads and components in my jewelry studio, how could I not come up with something? Midnight, 1:30, 2:30 . . . shuffling things around, getting ideas, abandoning them. All I had decided was to make a necklace and tie on deerskin lacing with a lark's head knot. How original is that?
Ok, focus on the pendant. Keep the color palette neutral and the style organic and earthy. Hang something from the pendant, but what? Agates collected on my beach stared at me from a jar on the windowsill. Use me! I caged a perfectly-shaped rock in an antiqued copper cage and went to bed.
In the light of the morning, it dawned on my to use some brown waxed linen to tie on the caged agate. To add a slight pop of color, I added a green aged picasso Czech glass bead. The shapes that kept appearing in my mind's eye had materialized here in the pendant portion of the necklace and the proportions seemed just right. Good.
Now to tackle the leather lacing. I played with various incarnations of bead groupings and finally settled on knotting aged picasso Czech glass beads, old padre trade beads, and copper spacers and beads. Things were looking more hopeful, and I began really liking this necklace.
Necklace length always vexes me. I love my necklaces long, but I know that many customers prefer shorter ones. To solve that problem, I prefer making necklaces adjustable, whenever possible. Large hole bead to the rescue. I like adorning the leather ends, so that if the wearer chooses a shorter length, the ends can hang down, adding an interesting design element.
After completing a necklace or bracelet, I always feel compelled to make coordinating earrings. Though sets seldom sell as such and usually end up as orphans, I still make them. Besides, I wanted to use these polka dot agate beads I purchased at a recent gem and mineral show in Seaside. Love those paired with antiqued copper and mother of pearl.
So here it is, the completed set. I feel satisfied that I kept things simple and neutral. I actually wore this set out and about today with a white t-shirt and brown pants. Very casual and comfortable. Successful test drive.
AJE team, thank you for your inspiring blog, and thanks again, Diana, for sharing one of your wonderful pendants with me. To see other unique creations using these components, please join the blog hop! (If you click on the blog links below and receive a message that the post doesn't exist, just click on the blog HOME button or link to get to the reveal post.)
Guests
AJE Team
