May component of the month challenge reveal

It's the time to reveal what I made with the gorgeous pendant I that I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive from Lesley Watt for the May component of the month challenge over on the Art Elements blog site. Here is the link to the original post: http://artelements.net/may-component-of-the-month-design-challenge-and-giveaway/

and a reminder of what I received. 

Even though Lesley used a shell to create the pattern, the colour and the texture of the piece immediately made me think of lichen and all things woodland.

I thought you might like to see my thought process as I went along rather than just show you the finished piece.

I decided to have a go at making some ivy leaves in glass. My first attempt came out looking like a hemp leaf lol!

So I popped into the garden and picked this ivy leaf for reference.

 

My next attempt was a little better!

 

I wanted to create the impression of the veining in the leaf but wasn't really happy with using the razor tool to create the details. So my next attempt I thought I would draw the veins on with stringer. it's been a while since I did any stringer work as you can see it was a bit of a failure!

 I also tried etching the leaves to see if they would look any better matt rather than shiny.

Then I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, I know, I'll have a go at etching the veining onto the glass with my new Micro Dremel.

My first attempts were practices using different size etching tools and bingo this gave me the look I was after.

 

Next up was to try some different coloured glass as I wasn't really happy with the transparent dark green I used. I tried a CIM glass called Sherwood and even some enamel but still wasn't 100% happy. Then I found an odd lot rod of a Vetrofond glass called Lemongrass that a friend gave me. Odd lots are glass that aren't everyday production, they might be mistakes made when trying to repeat a production glass and usually aren't repeated. The Vetrofond factory where this one was made was sold to a new owner but the existing owner didn't give away any of his recipes so although the new owners are trying to re-produce the glass it is unlikely we will see this one again. Glass like this is usually coveted by lampworkers and unhappy when they run out. Luckily I had enough to make the leaves I wanted.

Using the finest etching ball I engraved the veins and success! I had the look I was after. Now just to make a few more.....

I knew I wanted to make a necklace (well what else could you do with a pendant piece!) but I didn't want it to be too fussy and detract from the beauty of the pendant so I took some 1.5mm copper wire and created a frame. I wire wrapped the ivy leaves onto the frame and then hung the pendant from the centre.

I had this lovely hand dyed silk chiffon ribbon that I pulled from my stash to create a cord to hang the piece from. I took some 3mm elastic and wrapped the ribbon around it and glued the ends.

Antique brass bead caps finished it off and I made a copper spiral clasp to complete the look.

Here is the finished piece

I hope you like it.

Thanks for looking.

Don't forget to check out what the other designers made with Lesley's piece.

Guests
Jess GreenSarajo Wentling

Art Elements team
Laney Mead

Diana Ptaszynski

Susan Kennedy

Jen Cameron

Caroline Dewison

Claire Fabian

Karen Totten

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Lesley Watt

Linda x