This month the featured gemstone chosen by our Blog Hop Challenge host, Andrew Thornton, Creative Director of Allegory Gallery, is Rainbow Fluorite. This is such a beautiful stone exhibiting a range of colors such as purple hues, greens, bluish gray and amber. Andrew drew inspiration for selecting the components of the kit from a meditative exercise that he participated in. He explains his experience,
"The guided meditation included imagining that our energy was a tree, with roots connecting to the earth and branches that extended into the sky and out into the universe. As we extended our conscious mind upward and outward, it was like we moved through levels... almost like the bands on the stone...So now whenever I see the stone, I think of this tree, made of light and energy and consciousness."
With those positive vibes in mind, Andrew selected the following items to include in the kit: Luxury Bead Blend is composed mostly of the stone, with Czech glass (both old and new), Swarovski crystal, vintage sequins, Japanese seed beads, strand of fluorite and a Mystery Component. Here is a picture of this month's kit:
I decided to use the polymer clay that Andrew made himself in a design that incorporated the variegated Fluorite gemstone chips as leaves. I wire-wrapped the chips on ball headpins and added them to a bronze chain that was adorned with leaf dangles. The necklace reminds me of a flowering tree that is catching the last fading rays of sunlight.
Next I selected the beautiful Czech glass flowers and made dangle earrings to coordinate with the necklace.
And for my final design, I drew on an old memory from my childhood. The neighbor behind my parent's house had a lilac bush that draped into our yard and I used to love the smell and multi-nucleated flower clusters. The seed bead blend matched the beautiful shades of the lilac bush so I made a pair of beaded earrings and added beaded leaves.
That is all my contributions for this design challenge. Hop over to Andrew's blog or click on the highlighted links below to see the beautiful creations from the other participants!
Fantastic designs! I love that this challenge brought back some memories from your childhood and you were inspired by that! Your necklace really does make me think of a Dreaming Tree!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful necklace! I know you will enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWhat great designs! I especially like the necklace with all those dangles. Just the perfect setting for the dreaming tree.
ReplyDeleteWow now that's a lot of dangles and I love it! All beautiful designs :)
ReplyDeleteWow! Your necklace with the mystery component is wonderful! I love the chip with the leaf chain; it's so perfect with the pendant! I love the earrings too. Lilacs are my favorite, and they are around such a short time. I always stop to smell them whenever I get the chance.
ReplyDeleteI adore your necklace - so lush. It really does remind me of a favorite tree I climbed and hung out in as a child, as well as a wisteria bower my aunt had in her front yard. All of the cousins could fit and hide under those lovely scented purple blooms - our own fairy castle. Thanks for the lovely trip to the past. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo many beautiful pieces! WOW! I love the necklace! I bet it has a lot of fun, fringy movement. And the earrings are great! I love the story about the lilacs. I think all jewelry... actually all creative pursuits... are vehicles for these stories and become touchstones to memories. Thanks so much for participating! You're awesome!
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