A couple of years ago, I started making jewelry. It all begun with a two-hour beading class at the local fine arts center. Earrings, necklaces, bracelets... I made tons of them. I found my inspiration in JJill catalogues, the local farmers' market, and other places I can't remember ... Some pieces I still have, some I gave away as presents, some of it I sold at our moving sale. And then, all of a sudden, it stopped. I found some new hobbies like needle felting, collage, messing around with paint, baking, photography... I did a bit of sewing again. But I didn't make any jewelry for the past two years.
And then, this weekend, some new ideas kicked in and I made this necklace and really had fun at it! Doesn't it look beautiful?!
Except for the bronze chain, pendant, split rings and pins, I had everything here at at home. The braid and fabric pompom, I had made a while ago. They were just sitting in my "crafts" box, waiting until I found some new inspiration to do something with them. The braid was made out of silk ribbon and fabric strips. Some of you might even recognize the fabric. It's the same one I used in quite a few projects by now (here and here) and which I originally got to make some pyjama pants with - which I never finished, by the way. I don't even remember where they ended up...But I guess I'm deviating.
The pompom just "happened" (same fabric!). If you'd like to make one of these: they're really easy. All you need is fabric strips (about 0.5 cm) and a pompom template (I made my template with some heavy weight card stock) and you just proceed as you would for a regular yarn pompom. When done, you just trim here and there with scissors to get it into shape and ... done!
Besides the gem stones and bronze flower pendant, I added a (tiny) leather strip. That leather, I got a while back at BHV, a big department store here in Paris. I had no idea what I would use it for - I just loved the color and needed to have it!(I've got some nice green too!) And see, it fits in perfectly with the rest and (the back of it) made the perfect surface to put the necklace on in the light box...
Now, will I wear it? I don't know. It might end up in my jewelry box just like the other stuff I made or I might put it on display against a wall. The thing is, I hardly wear any jewelry, but I love to make it...
And I'm already planning a next one!
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