What I made the other day...

I've kind of been on a tear lately to create something in silver and bone, prompting me to even create a chain that would somehow form the basis of several different pieces, or at least pieces of those pieces. That part of the equation being done, it sort of fell by the wayside while I tended to custom orders, chain production, blah, blah, blah.

But, eventually I did get back to it, spending Sunday afternoon fiddling with some focals I had been acquiring along the way, and a couple of vintage pieces that I thought might work well. Essentially, I didn't know what would come out of this, but started with the chain, a sequenced design including cable chain, cast connectors, and vintage bone beads. It originally looked like a big mish-mash of brass and silver with the bone, but I sent if off to have it done in sterling overlay, and after a dip in the patina bath and a brisk rubdown, it looked really nice. I interjected some other larger chain components and ended up with the simple and long chain with the carved tusk focal. That can be double wrapped and worn short, too.

Next, I chose the beautiful carved goddess to work with, and added in some long bone beads to coordinate with that and used the same base chain with some long hammered connectors as well. Her serene little face makes me happy when I look at it!

For the third necklace in the suite, I used one of the vintage pieces I picked up at a recent flea market, most likely a tribal or nomadic piece of jewelry. Too short to do anyone with a normal neck justice, I set about lengthening the chain with some vintage carved bone beads, sequencing them by size to the back of the neck, and then reusing the original chain and hook as a closure. The lion's share of the work went into wire wrapping all the tiny bone beads into the necklace, but I'm super happy with the way it looks.

I seem to be happiest when working with really restrained color palettes, liking the simplicity of the colors and tones. One of my favorite design palettes is still brass and black diamond, which shows up a lot in my work, with variations in materials that include bronze, mercury glass, and others.