Monday, April 18, 2011

Vintage Dreams of Flight

One of the things we love about being an Artbeads Design Partner is the opportunity to create pieces of jewelry that are outside our comfort zone. This time we felt this was really working outside of our "norm". The theme for this blog challenge was to create something with a vintage look and feel. The challenge is called ‘What’s Old is New Again!’. Sheryl and I tend to work with sterling silver, and sometimes with gold fill, but we've not worked together using other metals. Recently we've been talking about incorporating brass and pewter into our designs given the high price of sterling silver these days. So the timing of this challenge was perfect for us.

When thinking of vintage, brass seemed right so we decided to create something with brass. We had such fun looking at all the pendants available in the Steampunk Pendants Section where we found this beautiful Dragonfly Pendant. Seemed like it would be wonderful as a center piece. It didn't hurt that it reminded us of Tiffany Lamps, which often used dragonfly images in their designs.

Next we thought about chain and we found this amazing funky chain that has lots of movement to it. The chain seems substantial yet fine, maybe because the round links are inter-woven with each other, creating a dense looking chain that is light and airy.. This Antique Brass-Plated chain rocks!

We added a couple of small Hummingbird beads and Citrine and Pyrite beads to finish it off.

We love how this piece turned out. Artbeads feeds our creativity and we are always surprised by the designs we come up with. This one is close to my heart, having owned a second hand clothing and funky second hand store in the 70's. Art Nouveau and Deco were what I loved most, and I still find myself drawn to pieces that are from these periods.

Terry

Disclaimer: Artbeads.com sometimes sends us products to review on this blog. We are free to choose from designated beads/findings and are free to make whatever we choose. We do not receive any compensation from Artbeads and we are expected to review their products honestly.

7 comments:

  1. A beautiful necklace Terry. I enjoy seeing what you and Sheryl create, like watching a developing process of creativity. Thanks.

    Sylvia

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  2. Looking good Terry!

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  3. Loved meeting you both at the Kiwanis Wine tasting. Hope to see you again soon and hopefully I will buy more of your jewelry.

    Heather Carter

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  4. Wow! Love that necklace. I have always been drawn to dragonflies and that necklace is just perfect.

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  5. Just beautiful! Love this necklace!
    I started to work with brass not long ago and seems I can't go back to silver or gold now! :)

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  6. Thanks for the wonderful comments. Artbeads featured this necklace on their facebook page - was great to see it there.

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  7. I love this necklace and the picture of you modeling it. I enjoy seeing what comes out of the ArtBeads blogging theme. It's such a great opportunity to try new materials or see how they look in a finished piece.
    Christine

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