Here IT IS!!

The Birthday Girl was gifted last evening and I must say I was overwhelmed by her response! There were tears all around and the necklace was worn immediately and THEN shown to the gathered group of artists who were clamboring to take a look.!!! There is nothing like the feelings of working ona piece of artwork for someone that you care about and adding bits that you know will ahve special signifigance to them and then ahving the response to the gift be so very heartfelt. I feel as if Judy gave Me the gift last night , not the other way around. This is essentially the central reason that I create my artwork. Sure it is nice to have others value it enough to purchase it, and it is nice to set a goal and to be able to meet that financial goal with monies generated by sales of my work, but it is far more the personal interactions and connections that are created that infuse my spirit with the desire to create.

I took several close up shots of the necklace to show off the details as a full shot left alot to be desired! The back of the necklace is chains of various sorts, quite decorative in this case. At the top left of the above shot you can see a snippet of the wonderful blossom shaped links that form the left side and on the right, I simply opened up a wonderful bali silver bracelet and used the clasp of the bracelet as the clasp of the necklace.

The central dangle is formed by a wonderful vintage rhinestone button that has three lobes to it so it was perfect for uniting the sides of the piece. WHO does not like rhinestones and sparkling hand carved vintage cryastal beads???? Then on the right, you see a small gold locket where Judy can place a picture of her choice. In between each element I added freshwater pearls and used my favorite underwear buttons as linking elements, all wrapped up with silver wire. Judy has a serious addiction to vintage buttons and has enabled my collection on many occassions!!

My favorite part of this piece is the central dangle. The basis of it is a vintage shoe clip. This is the accutal clipping portion and I flattened and filed the sharp little teeth on the back that would have held the clip securly in the shoe. Then I affixed the wonderful vintage rhinestone earring to the top to hide the attachment area and added a leave shaped pendant carved from quartz crystal and a wonderful soldered charm with a photo of two little girls.

As I created this special piece, the pile of possibilites on my work area grew as I pulled out more bits, and as I dealt with design issues and thoughts and ideas bred more thoughts and ideas. When this piece was completed, I continued on to create two more pieces that I will use for class samples. One piece is created using copper and turquiose elements and the other is based on the treasures that I gathered during my recent trip to the beach.
These pieces will be the subjects of future posts!!