Saturday, October 31, 2015

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month: Ravens!

Usually, the Art Jewelry Elements blog offers up a specific Component of the Month for their editors and a few lucky guests to design with for their monthly challenge.  For October they shook things up a bit and are allowing anyone to participate... and it wasn't even limited to jewelry this time!  The theme for the month is the raven.  Karen Totten wrote a great introductory post about the facts and myths surrounding ravens (and how they differ from crows) that you can read HERE.  To keep the raven love going and further inspire us, Jenny Davies-Reazor just shared a post about the ravens of Celtic myth that you can check out HERE.

Common Raven, from "Into the Woods".
Eric and I both love ravens and have a few different art pieces in our house, so I had to play along... but first I had to find the perfect art bead to feature.  In digging through my mess of beads and supplies (good gravy but I need to block out some serious time to get my studio under control!!) I found a pendant that I had totally forgotten about from Kylie Parry.  I bought it in a destash bundle quite a while back and (hangs head in shame) it was still in the box she shipped to me.

As usual, I forgot to snap a picture before I began my design.  Sigh.
Technically, it's supposed to be a crow (at least as far as her listing goes) but I think he looks raven-y enough.  He's got the ruff of feathers around his neck anyway!



I used mostly gemstones (jasper and carved agate) as well as some Czech glass.  I also added a cool metal bead that I bought in Santa Fe a few years back that's a mix of copper and silver.  For now, the back is copper plated chain to match the other copper findings but I'm tempted to replace that with some black deerskin leather lace.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

This is a blog hop.  Check out today's post on the Art Jewelry Elements blog to see what everyone else was inspired to make HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!

11 comments:

  1. I really like the earthy quality of your necklace Sarajo - the stones work beautifully with the pendant. I think I would be inclined to try the deerskin leather too - I think it would really complement the focal. Thanks for joining us in this challenge.

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  2. What a lovely autumnal piece - I love the selection of gemstones you've used here :) And how lucky for you to have this super pendant squirreled away in your stash! Like finding buried treasure!

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  3. A perfectly balanced necklace both in design and colour, lovely!

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  4. Beautiful necklace. The copper and gemstones are perfect complements to the pendant.

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  5. This is really fab. That pendant was just waiting for the right challenge!

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  6. What a lovely piece, the stones go so well with the pendent, and that focal is really lovely! I do like it how it is but think the leather lace would just take the design to the next level!

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  7. What a stunning component, I love your design with it!

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  8. I like the visual rhythm of the round beads echoing the scalloped edge! Nicely done!

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  9. Very nice design. Love Kylie's pendant, too. I think you're onto something with leather around the bakc.

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  10. What a great studio find! It's like searching for buried treasure ;-) I too used a crow for a raven. It's totally legit! I adore this piece, great job on it! Thanks for reading AJE and participating in the challenge this month!

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  11. Love the great earthy feel of this necklace - full of organic texture and warm beads. It's a perfect accessory for fall!

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