I don’t recall whose idea it was, but it was a great idea because we each get a work of art from a fellow bead weaving artist that’s made to our tastes and yet is a big surprise. I received an absolutely gorgeous piece by Olga Pettersson and a bar of Really Fine Chocolate. YUM! You can see the piece – and all the other works that have successfully reached their destinations – at Christine’s Beadworks. My swapee was Lisa Savoy, who apparently loves greens, blues, black and metals and smallish sized work. This was almost a challenge as I tend to work large, but serendipity struck and her piece has a story. And a video!

The Story
In nearby New Haven, Ripple100, a young internet micromarketing firm has recently launched. They employ proprietary software to help clients get the word out on single ideas that can be virally shred throughout cyberspace and close to home. My idea is the transformation of unwearable old or broken jewelry into new treasures that will become heirlooms in the future. (You can see my transformation Ripplecast here.) We chose a necklace that had the potentiol to be very beautiful but was unwearable because it was missing its rhinestones and undesirable because it was, honestly, kind of boring. The pendant and its attendant accents are filigree leaves. Leaves can be green. I have several teeny tiny size 15/0 seed beads. Did I have enough greens for the rhinestones?

Several days later I had gone through my entire stash of rhinestones and, yes, I had greens (and a few blue). This would work. This would be wonderful. I started work on the replacement spiral (Ruth’s Twist) in four variations of green seed beads in 11/0 for the core and 15/0 for the spiral. Then I cemented in the rhinestones and let them cure for a day. Next I linked the main pendant and accents together with Swarovski bicones and faceted aventurine beads. Finally, I adjusted the spiral cords to be the right size and attached them to the accent leaves, added an Argentium sterling silver toggle and the transformation was complete, as you can see in the photograph below. I sure hope Lisa loves this necklace as much as I do, and as much as I adore the necklace I received from Olga.

Leaf Necklace for Lisa

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 5:06 PM and is filed under Artist at Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.