{"id":3170,"date":"2011-10-05T05:54:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T10:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2011-10-05T05:54:05","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T10:54:05","slug":"finishing-the-jewelry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2011\/10\/finishing-the-jewelry\/","title":{"rendered":"Finishing the Jewelry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve finished making jewelry in preparation for the Letchworth Arts & Crafts Festival<\/a>. I hit my target numbers for bracelets and exceeded it in both earrings and necklaces. Here are the remaining necklaces I’ve recently created.<\/p>\n

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to continue with my earlier pieces and make some more necklaces with center dangles. While none of them are exactly alike and I have to make adjustments for every one due to bead size, weight, and color, once I’m in a mode it’s easier for me to stay on it than to switch gears entirely. So I made a necklace with some nice poppy jasper I had.
\n\"poppy<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I decided to slide sideways into a necklace with a different kind of dangle. This is made from gold coral. (I believe it’s dyed.)
\n\"gold<\/a><\/p>\n

Sticking with the coral, I made also one that makes a much bolder statement. The coral is so lightweight, this necklace is surprisingly light around your neck. It will be just perfect for the right person.
\n\"gold<\/a><\/p>\n

After I put the coral away, I was going through one of my drawers for the next inspiration, and came upon some beautiful, large, horn rondelle beads. They were just the ticket for a whole different type of necklace. Pairing them with a variety of agates for a big, chunky necklace seemed the right move. I added a thick handmade copper toggle clasp, making it so the necklace can be worn with the clasp in the back, the front, or on the side.
\n\"horn<\/a><\/p>\n

Now for the pi\u00c3\u00a8ce de r\u00c3\u00a9sistance. In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that this wasn’t the last piece I made; I’ve been saving it to show you at the end. Every year the Letchworth Festival has competition. Artists and crafters can enter two pieces: one in their category (in my case for this show, jewelry), and one in the annual theme. I only entered a piece in the theme category one other year, as I never had anything that struck me as appropriate for it.<\/p>\n

This year’s theme is harmony<\/em>. Several days ago as I was sitting at my dining room table (where I create the jewelry), out of the blue I got an inspiration. The old duet between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder started playing in my mind; you know the one – Ebony & Ivory. I sang it through mentally a few times without thinking about it, just enjoying the old classic song. <\/p>\n

Then the lightbulb went off! When I got rid of that ancient, broken player piano that sat in my damp basement for years, I purposely pulled off the ivory from many of the keys. I had that ivory sitting in an old peanut butter jar in my cupboard. I could use that ivory and some onyx to make a necklace in the harmony theme. It would have been ideal if I had also saved some of the ebony keys, but I didn’t.<\/p>\n

Initially I thought I’d create a rather literal interpretation of a piano keyboard, but as I got into the design, I changed my mind, and made a necklace more loosely based on a keyboard. I’ve only shown it to one other person at this point, and Margaret <\/a>loves it. She’s such a good friend she’s not necessarily objective, though. So here’s the big reveal.
\n\"harmony<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no idea how it will be received at the show, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter because I’m happy with it.<\/p>\n

Your turn: have you ever won a prize because of your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve finished making jewelry in preparation for the Letchworth Arts & Crafts Festival. I hit my target numbers for bracelets and exceeded it in both earrings and necklaces. Here are the remaining necklaces I’ve recently created.<\/p>\n

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to continue with my earlier pieces and make some more necklaces with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[555],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jewelry-healing-gemstones","tag-necklaces","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3183,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}