Art Elements April 2017 Component of the Month

Each month over on the Art Elements blog they host a Component of the Month giveaway and challenge.  I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the guest participants to receive one of Jennifer Cameron's lovely lampwork glass beads!  It always feels like Christmas when new beads come in the mail and I was thrilled to find the bead on the bottom right in my little package from Jen.  (At least I think that one is mine... if not they are super similar color wise!)  There is so much rich color inside of swirls of clear glass!

There are some bronze-y and sand colors in my bead along side the various blues and the tiniest bit of teal.  I wanted to do something with all of that color action!  I was originally thinking that I would string the front part of the necklace, but nothing I did looked quite right to me.  I changed tactics and wire wrapped links using faceted bronzite rondelles, smooth blue aventurine rounds, and some English cut Czech glass beads in an amazing mix of colors that Lima Beads calls "Earth."

I wanted the back of the necklace to be soft... and to bring in more color.  Plus it's been a while since I used any ribbon in one of my designs and I like to mix things up.  I thought that I had some finished ribbon in the right blues but I only found sari silk and that just wasn't hitting the right chord for me.  Instead I opted for some hand dyed silk ribbon in a sea green color.  It's not what I originally had in mind but I do think it pulls out the teal in the focal bead and plays off some of the color in the Czech glass.  The focal bead makes me think "ocean" with it's colors and swirls, so the ribbon color just plays into completing the sea inspired color palette.

Stop by the other participants' blogs to see what everyone else created!

Guest Designers:

Sarajo Wentling - You Are Here!

Deb Stewart

Art Elements Team:

Sue Kennedy

Laney Mead

Lesley Watt

Claire Fabian

Karen Totten

Cooky Schock

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Niky Sayers

Lindsay Starr

Jen Cameron