Jewelry Mojo Challenge Week 12: Art Inspired

I can't believe it, the final week of Heather Powers' Jewelry Making Mojo challenge is here!  For our final task, Heather has challenged us to make a piece of jewelry inspired by our all-time favorite piece of artwork from any medium.  I have to admit that this kind of stumped me.  As I've mentioned before, I have no real background in art or art history.  Sure, there are plenty of of pieces of art that inspire me and I respond to... but a favorite?  Not so much.  (Sorry if this sounds like heresy!)

So as I thought about it my mind turned to the some of the first artists whose work I admired and owned (well, in print form anyway).  Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, and Gustav Klimt.  In retrospect, I think a lot of the appeal of Dali and Escher to my teen aged self was that they are both a little, well, weird.  And I was weird.  Not really weird enough or normal enough to really fit in with any one group.  Luckily I had a nice group of friends that fell in the same range so we made our own group that was a band of misfit toys in many ways... but I digress.

So, from there I moved onto thinking more about Klimt and how I have long been enamored with and fascinated by his work from what is known as his "Golden Phase," and especially The Kiss.  Unlike my fancy for Dali and Escher, my feelings for Klimt have endured.  The rug in our basement alcove is even Klimt inspired!

Much of Klimt's work features gold leaf and a very cool almost mosaic effect.  (See, told you I'm no art historian!)  Apparently he was influenced by both the Art Nouveau style and the Arts and Crafts movement... two things I'm also enamored with so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I like this painting!

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (Lovers), oil and gold leaf on canvas, 1908–1909.

I remembered that I had a pillow shaped bead in my stash from my very early days of beading that I bought because it reminded me of Klimt's work.  I had intended it to be used as a pendant for a necklace but had never gotten around to it.  I initially thought that I would finally make that necklaces but then I decided to play around with waxed linen and made another bracelet instead.

I chose some walnut colored waxed Irish linen, a bunch of random glass and crystal beads, and even a couple of matte finished little spacer beads from The Spacer Bead Shop.  I also worked in a couple of gold plated beads to pull in the gold colors from the focal bead.  I kept my color palette to shades of cream, grey, and amber and finished things off with some Vintaj brass chain and lobster claw clasp.

A HUGE thank you to Heather Powers for hosting this wonderful challenge.  It's been a really great experience for me and has helped me see new ways of thinking about things. Next time my mojo needs a boost, I'll have some great tricks to fall back on!