Vintaj Plum Orchard Design Challenge

This month's design challenge theme over on the Vintaj Natural Brass blog is "Plum Orchard."  I will fess up here right from the start: for the first time I didn't create my piece in response to the theme... I used something that I had previously made.  In this case, it's a necklace I made in February that my friend Kathleen bought from me at the Artsy Market sale...so it's not terribly old!

I wanted to do something a little different or unusual above the main pendant (I tend to do a lot of designs where I attach the chain off of a jump ring of some sort) so I decided to try riveting the two Arte Metal flower pieces together.  It was a little tricky since the little flower drops have so much texture to them and aren't even, but I made it work.  I distressed the surface a slightly to get the silver color to shine through on the high points and then did a little touch up job with black paint to disguise the rivet.  Here is a before paint picture... it worked pretty well, if I don't say so myself!

This isn't one of the more elaborate designs I've done, but I'm happy with the relative simplicity.  It has great pops of color with the various purples that make me think more of the fruit of a plum tree than the blossoms.  I'm so over Minnesotan winter, and I hope that I will get to see some real, live blooms soon.  For now, I'll have to be content with flowers in my jewelry designs!

Lots of folks entered the challenge this month so competition will be fierce.  If you want to see all the designs and vote CLICK HERE.  Mine is number 14 this month...I hope you'll consider voting for me!