Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Necklace Round Robins

I'm hosting two necklace round robins over at my Charmsters group. For each one, there are eight women participating. (I'm in both groups.) You start by buying or making a chain, and creating a focal piece for it. You also make a book to go with it and a box to put it in. Then for the next eight months, they travel around the country to each woman in the group. She adds a charm or something to it. In September, we'll get our necklaces back and will see how everyone has added to our design.

One of my necklaces, I call Blue Dreams. Since blue is my favorite color, I thought it would be fun to have a necklace with all blue elements. I bought a silver chain, cut it in pieces, and made a clasp. The focal is glass beads hung by chain, and silver wire that has been bent and hammered. The box is an old cigar box that I painted. The book's covers have been altered with acrylic-painted tissue paper. And the whole thing is tied together with beautiful yarns.



I called my other necklace Natural Beauty. I love the look of wire, copper, and stones. I chose a few beads that look like stones and glass. They're strung on sterling wire and wrapped around a piece of copper sheet that I cut and torched for color. The box is a cardboard box that was junk mail. It contained a spot for a CD and business cards. I adapted these for the necklace and name plate. The notebook is covered with a sheet I made by sandwiching tissue paper, polymer medium, and twigs and leaves from my backyard. I then brushed a thin glaze of orange/brown over top. The whole thing was tied together with various yarns, but I didn't get a photo of that.



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