My challenge with Andrew Thornton’s November Reader’s kit wasn’t the fact that nearly every component in the set was yellow, a color I have little design experience with. My biggest challenge stemmed from the luxury seed bead mix dominated by sparkling yellows, pale greens, peaches and a punch of gold and bronze. They begged to be spilled out on my mat and stitched into something lovely, organic and freeform. But I promised myself I would complete this project sans needle.
My favorite pieces in the Jonquil kit were the knowledge tree pendant (the month’s mystery component), and the long wooden bead, both of which cried out to be used in a focal. With kit in hand, I was off to my favorite bead store, where I found a carved, black onyx leaf, which brought out the color and detail in both. To heighten the challenge, I threw pink into the mix, another color that rarely makes an appearance on my bead table.
Once my focal was secured to the brass chain supplied in the kit, I dusted off my wireworking skills, creating sections of dangles leading to some gold Venetian glass coins from my stash. I used the soft peach tones from the kit to transition to the larger dangles that echo the focal. To give more length to the necklace, I added a doubled length of Vintaj ornate chain.
Much praise and many thanks go to Andrew Thornton for offering his readers these monthly opportunities to forge down new creative paths and work with artisan pieces that excite our imaginations. Take a moment to click on the following links to all the participants who will be revealing their Jonquil Challenge results:
Alice Bavaud will have pieces on Andrew Thornton's blog
Lovely piece! The onyx black leaf really looks great.
ReplyDeleteHi:-)
ReplyDeleteFine necklace.Very interesting as concerning the beads used and as a composition of nice,sunny and optimistic colors.
Hugs-Halinka-
I love your necklace it is very pretty. I like that you chose to use pink it makes the yellow pop!
ReplyDeleteTherese
Oh! I love your addition of pink! So inspired. Looks like it would be a lovely tactile necklace to wear ;_)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I love the contrast of darker and lighter elements especially the way the onyx leaf highlighted the pendant. The pink was a nice addition too. - Dawn
ReplyDeleteI love the pink and the onyx leaf with Andrew's tree. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteOh my, this is just delicious. Great stuff. I also was part of the challenge, but was also a bit slack in letting Andrew know I was still entering. If you can take a moment to go look at my unfinished piece on my blog I'd be really happy. Thanks. http://aasibeadit.blogspot.com/ ;-)
ReplyDeleteOops, made a little mistake in my blog url: http:asibeadit.blogspot.com/ Sorry about that. ;-)
ReplyDeletePreciosa combinación de colores!!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work! I love what you added to the challenge pieces. It has so much color and movement.
ReplyDeleteOh my! This is seriously one of my favorites! I love the layered look of the pendant. The dark tone really frames Andrew's special component so well! And adding pink - both colors would give me troubles - really plays up both colors in such a playful way. Very nicely done! And I love that you challenged yourself further to do techniques that you don't normally do. You hit this one out of the park!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the day!
Erin
I like the addition of pink and black with the yellow kit. It has a "happy" vibe!
ReplyDeleteLush and pretty and light and feminine. I think this is my favorite piece in the hop. Looks just perfect to me!
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