AJE December Reveal

The theme for December on the Art Jewellery Elements Blog is about the Re-birth of the sun. or more importantly the Winter Solstice which was on December 22nd. You can read all about the challenge and the inspiration behind in by clicking the link above.

When I saw this inspirational picture with the spirals posted by Lesley

http://knowth.com

I knew exactly what I was going to make.

This challenge couldn't have come at a better time for me, too many grey days and not enough sun is enough to make anyone down, so with bright oranges in mind for a bright sun it was bound to give me a lift.

I made these headpins using a glass called Apricot Yellow, one of my absolute favourites. I love the way that the glass has a different tone where it has been stamped.

I used this spiral stamp from ABR Imagery to create the texture in the centre of the headpin and then placed dots on the outside and manipulated them in the flame to makes the rays of the sun. The first ones were a bit ropey but I got much better as I went on, managing to get the rays to all go the same way.

I knew I wanted 5 to make a necklace plus a few extra to put for sale in my Etsy store.

When I set about designing a piece of jewellery I like to pull out all the beads and ribbon in my stash that I think will go with what I am making. Now I have to say that although I love orange as you can see I don't have that many orange beads in my stash.

I didn't want to make the necklace too fussy as I felt the headpins had enough detail in them as it is so I had a little play and narrowed it down to some seed beads (from a charity shop find), some of those yummy matt crystals (from Totally Beads I had a look on their site but can't see them any more) and some hand dye chiffon ribbon (purchased from Ebay a while ago).

I wrapped the chiffon ribbon around some 2mm elastic cord and finished the ends with some ribbon crimps. I threaded some of the seed beads and a crystal onto the headpin and then because I didn't want the headpins to move around the necklace, I wire wrapped them in place at intervals.

Now of course a necklace like this needs a special clasp to finish it off, so back to the torch I went and made one of my daisy toggle clasps with a twist.

Here is the finished piece

I hope you like it.

Don't forget to pop over and give some love to the other participants.

Guest Designers

Melissa Trudinger

Lennis Carrier

Linds Newnham

Tammy Adams

Sherri Hartman-Stokey

AJE Team

Lindsay Starr

Jennifer Cameron

Sue Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Thanks for looking.

Linda x