Wednesday, January 23, 2008

YOJ - Week 4: "First Snow"








Last week an utter disappointment for me, this week, well this week I'm good!! The theme is "blustery" ( I don't know about you, but my mind always goes to Pooh Bear and the Blustery Day.... Piglet flying with that umbrella is just a vivid imagine in my mind!) I tried to put Pooh bear aside, and think on what blustery really means to me. I started to think of swirling leaves in the air.. and then since I'm in Iowa and well, it's really cold right now, and leaves are already on the ground, under several inches of snow besides.. and I thought instead of snow whirling around you. Not the vicious stuff we are getting right now, but more like the first gentle snow fall of the year, with lovely big flakes that just seem to get bigger and bigger as they fall down. The kind of snow that you loved as a child, and as an adult it's pretty--- as long as you don't have to drive in it! That kind of magical first snow. Idea firmly in hand, I started to do some sketches.. I definitely wanted to do a necklace, that much I was sure about. About this time, sitting on my desk was a vintage crystal from a chandelier. I don't really know how old it is, but it's sort of unique, and I only have 1 ... it's round with a star type pattern in it. If you look at in with the right though in your head, it kind of looks like a snowflake. I've been digging in my stash trying to get stuff ready to sell, and found it.. and couldn't part with it. So it sat on my desk waiting for magic... and instead became the magic I was looking for in this piece! Think about how small snow looks high up, and then how much bigger it gets as it floats down to you. How close it has to be to your eyes to see even the edges of a snow flake... that 's what I wanted to replicate in my necklace! It worked up pretty quickly, especially in contrast to last week! I made matching earrings. The chain is 18 ga sections of sterling, wrapped with a mix of modern and vintage crystals in chalk white, opal and clear crystal. Each section is linked by 3 links of chain, so it moves very easy, and drapes wonderfully. the Pendant is in 20 ga. This was a really fun project!! The last pic is matching earrings.

1 comment:

The bad Liz said...

I didn't see this one Kat, but I love it. This is going to be the inspiration for a piece for next Christmas - I have a Swarovski crystal tree that I haven't been happy with, but this has ideas swirling around in my head.

Kindof like your blustery snow.....