Greetings all Ye Merry Gentleman and Fair Ladies. Welcome to the "Noble Knight Blog Hop Challenge" hosted by Andrew Thornton, Creative Director of Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, PA. Each month Andrew assembles a challenge kit containing all manner of beads and findings and bundles it up with a theme for the participants to draw inspiration. This time the theme was Noble Knights. The palette is rich with regal jewel tones: dark and mysterious blues, crimson reds and steely grays. It reminded me of brave King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. Actually, it reminded me of Monty Python's "Holy Grail!" This movie is a classic spoof Arthurian legend and one of my all-time favorites. So without further ado, here are my creations to pay homage to the "silly kiniggits (knights pronounced phonetically for those who do not favor the humor of the British comedy troupe)" of yore!!
The first design is a pair of earrings that reminded me of the decorative shields that Medieval knights sported in battle, for instance the Shield of the Knight Templars.
I used brick stitch with metallic blue hex cut beads, and embellished with an "insignia" composed of a bright, reflective red sequin and decorative fringe:
The next piece was inspired by the collars and chokers worn by the noble ladies of the times. This is a netted design using seed beads in deep, crimson red and metallic blues with drops in metallic blue, hex beads and garnet-colored crystals to coordinate with the earring set:
Finally, I had to incorporate chain maille into the theme, because we are talking Medieval knights in shining armor after all.
I decided to use a weave that I've made and blogged about previously. It is not a common weave and results in a rather stiff section of interwoven rings that only bend in one plane, which makes for a perfect scaffold for embellishment. The weave is called "2 in 1 Captive Parallel" and was created by MaxumX as a variation of Captive 2 in 1 chain and 'tutorialized' by Onering on Maillers Worldwide. I used Bright Aluminum and Anodized Aluminum jump rings in Red and Blue for the 2 in 1 Captive Parallel weave and embellished the base rings with wire wrapped dangles using pearl and crystal components from the kit. The chain is basic 2-1-2 links.
I hope you've enjoyed my interpretations of this theme! You will find more participants and their creations at the following links:
For the following participant's submissions, visit Andrew Thornton's blog:
Laurel Ross
Alison Herrington
Naama from Peculiaris
Donna Hoblit
and Joanne Goldberg
