Day 12: The {21} Challenge (con-tain-it)

Today's challenge word provided by Rhonna is MAGICAL...and creatively speaking, today really was magical for me! That's because I went out of my "comfort" zone and created a piece of jewelry...wow! My inspiration actually came from two places this week...first up was this video on Ruth Rae's blog:

Then earlier this week, when I was working on my fall wardrobe and "paper-dolls" journal pages, I noticed that currently the fashion magazines all have a trend going on with ribbons and fibers showing up with the jewelry. Which was, that ribbons/fibers are either tying up necklaces or found wound between lots of pearls and chains. There's even a name for it...

Style magazine is calling it "STRANDED"...personally I think Sandra looks like my jewelry box...aka naked woman statue...in my bedroom...

Doesn't everyone display their jewelry this way...I asked my sister when she saw my dresser top:

See that little bit of "ribbon"...almost looks like antique, french seam binding and velvet ribbon woven into Kathleen's and Kim's necklaces...

Katherine...she makes my ode to "Anne Boleyn" bust look naked...

Even our own beloved Rhonna was ahead of the fashion design trends when she featured ruffled necklaces on her blog in August. Okay so after all this inspiration I decided to get to work...

Following the wonderful little video from Ruth Rae...I pulled out my fiber storage jar...I just never use these...they are just too pretty in the jar...lol Then I went into my bedroom and picked off an old necklace from my jewelry bust...and found some wire in my bead stash and made my "loop" thingy...

Have no clue if this is the right "gage" wire...don't really care! So...next I wound my beautiful Basic Grey fibers around my looped wire and followed that with more wire and glass beads in a pretty purple:

So next up was attaching my fiber/bead art to my pearls necklace...I didn't want to take it apart like the girls did in the video and have to "restring" this necklace...and as you can tell I've never made jewelry before...I'm not real good at making loops....SO I had these really neat attachment "things" in my bead stash...and they fit right over the small gold beads and attached the wire loops...WONDERFUL! Works for me...

So here is a picture of my finished piece...I attached a heart pendant and used pink silk, seam binding to accent the clasp with a bow. Then I used the same seam binding to loop through my "roach clips"...sorry I don't know what else to call them...anyhow...these clips have a hole in the top with a "cinch" clasp to pull your ribbon through and cinch it tight...so I completed my necklace with my "ribbon extension"...which I can use on other necklaces as well. THINK about the possibilities ladies...you could make these to attach name tags to for all your classes that you teach...oh yeah!

BUT my REAL inspiration for the ribbon and the roach clips was this great article on "embellished tanks"...look-ie...look-ie...they put grommets into the tank top so that they could tie the necklace through it...cool beans. SO...I put grommets into my blank tank and IT WORKS...looks really cute on. The only thing I'd do different...is not use "memories" grommets and go buy some from the fabric store...THESE COOL BIG ONES! So after all this creating jewelry...I had to finish my journal pages.

I wanted to document my inspiration and my completed projects...more of a scrapbook page...but still a visual journal and I was okay with the fact that my "creativity" for this challenge was with my beads. Here's a close-up of the left side:

I simply painted the background black and accented it with purple haze Lumiere fabric paints. For journaling...I used my Dynamo labeling gun and made simple notes through-out the pages. Here's a close-up of the right hand side...sorry it's late and a little blurry:

Check out the "Beyonce" photo...her necklace looks like a "rats nest"...I have one of those right now on my dresser...one of those necklace knots that take FOREVER to get undone...who knew that I could make a fashion statement out of it that way...lol

There is so much inspiration out there...like this article on a DIY website for making a statement necklace with "upholstery" trim...OKAY...but it really doesn't look that bad...and I got the "roach clip" idea from this article...because...you know...I just did't have "suspender clips" on hand...lol

Hope you all are inspired and enjoyed my creative play...I'm off to bed...it's so late...sweet dreams!

houzz

Comments

Oh, I posted a comment but I think it didn't work so here I go again...

Thanks for your comment on my blog. I think you are right, absolutely right! We can't be expected to fork out hundreds for designer pieces that are so "out there" we'd only wear them a time or two. It's not real life. I prefer being inspired by what I see on the runway and in the magazines and then challenging myself to come up with an affordable, workable version. Looking for materials is half the fun!

For instance, tonight I went to the movies wearing a Tarina Tarantino "inspired" Hello Kitty necklace that I made a while ago and although it looked like I was wearing a $200 piece, it cost me less than ten dollars.

Also: the fiber and pearl thing is interesting, I did it back in 2006 and sold some pieces on Inspire Company's website last September. I actually used Basic Grey fibers, if you can believe it!! Here's a link to the post:

http://www.saucysprinkles.com/2006/09/made-by-me.html

... proving that everything old is new again, and I don't really think all ideas get copied outright, they just get reinterpreted... I think. Anyway, not to worry about the soapbox comments on my blog - that was a friend of mine and I could see her point. From her perspective it must suck to have your ideas copied from trade show to trade show, when you're working hard to make a living off your ideas. I think that was just her point. It reminded me of a post our mutual friend Amy at Inspire Company wrote a couple of years ago about her mother announcing very loudly at a craft show "you could MAKE that, Amy, for much less" and Amy just about died of embarrassment. It's one thing to think it, but quite another thing to say it out loud in front of the artist! I think she made a good point!

xoxo
Sasha

PS. If you ever want to "collaborate" on a piece or anything, let me know!

Posted by: Sasha | October 10, 2009 at 01:31 AM

Hi Roberta,
fascinating! I don't follow the treads in celebs, so never know what is new and happening, this is quite something, Not sure I would wear it, but I like it! I love to make beaded necklaces and bangles. There is just not enough time in the world to do all the different hobbies!

Posted by: Bonnie | September 24, 2009 at 05:17 PM