A Challenge at New Year

I've just had a quick flick through my previous blog posts and it would seem I was involved in a challenge on Art Bead Scene.  At least I am consistent in some things! 

Towards the end of 2015 I saw a design challenge set my Michelle at Firefly Design Studio.  The challenge was to design a suite of jewellery using all of the beads sent to you, but you could choose from a neutral tones pallette or a bright.  Of course I went for the bright.

I've never designed a whole suite of jewellery before so that was my first challenge, deciding which beads would go into which piece.  The bracelet almost made itself.

Liberty Fabric with ceramic beads and copper.

I already had the Liberty fabric by some stroke of serendipitous luck.  And, I knew I wanted to use my weaving technique.  However, the addition of the flower was a later design evolution.

Ceramic beads with Liberty fabric necklace.

Just like the bracelet, I knew that the other connector had to be used for the necklace.  Having decided on how the bracelet would look, it was logical that the other beads would be used on the necklace so I went for the wire wrapping technique.  However, it took a long time for this design to finalise.  I didn't have a plan for the green bead, and I was also left with the two red flowers.  I decided to move onto the earrings.

Sweet lollipop earrings

 I decided early on that I would use the two red headpins for the earrings.  I also knew that I wanted to use my own copper ear wires.  The Libery fabric also had to feature to bring the set together.  And so, the earrings were born.

Having added the little Liberty bows to the earrings I wanted to include a bow on the necklace to bring the two together.  Then the penny dropped.  I would use the fabric weaving technique to make the other side of the necklace, the Liberty bow would help tidy up the link between the wire wrapping and the weaving.  Then the two red flowers could be wire wrapped to the bracelet and necklace to marry the two.

And there we have it, a suite of jewellery.  I am rather proud of it. 

Jewellery suite using ceramic beads and Liberty fabric with copper.