Marimekko-Inspired Necklace: July Pretty Palette Challenge

I confess: when I saw the inspiration for Halcraft's July Pretty Palette Challenge, I was a little unsure where to go with it. The inspiration for the challenge was this fabric designed by Marimekko, and the coordinating color palette is shown below.

If you've followed my blog for any length of time then you probably know that I LOVE COLOR. Bold colors do not scare me at all. However, this bold palette was not a group of colors that I would generally gravitate toward, nor think to put together in one one piece (at least not in these particular hues). And to be honest, I'm not a huge Marimekko fan. Don't get me wrong, as a former design student and art historian I can certainly appreciate the hallmarks of the Marimekko design house: bold colors, simple lines, repeating patterns, and two-dimensionality. But when it comes down to it, sometimes I just prefer a little more depth to the design.

That said, I relish assignments like these: to translate a concept or design style into a physical piece of jewelry (blame it on my architecture/art history nerd brain), so I knew I still wanted to give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did! I ended up creating a piece that I never would have dreamed up before, and I really love how it came together.

When the July challenge was posted I had already begun work on another idea, and coincidentally it involved flowers. I had been wanting to create some dimensional flowers as earrings, then decided instead to make a necklace, and already had all of the wires cut to create the flower frames. I hemmed and hawed about how I could rework the design and eventually came up with something that somewhat fit the Marimekko inspiration.

Now I know that these 'flowers', being 3-D and having scroll-y, ornate edges, are pretty much the opposite of what I just listed above as being typical of Marimekko. But hey, I did have the 'bold color scheme' going on. So I figured I would also try to focus on the 'flatness' and 'simplicity of design' qualities instead and refrained from any of my usual ombre or plethora-of-colors within each flower, and the only sparkle in the entire piece is from the crystal beads in the centers of the flowers.

[Note: you can click on the 'Tutorials' tab above for links to how I create my wire frames and embellish them with beads.]

In similar fashion I tried to keep the side connectors and toggle clasp as simple as I could (but you know I couldn't leave them completely devoid of color, so there are some tiny agate and bamboo coral beads). All of the wire focal elements, side connectors, chain, and toggle clasp are completely handmade using German style wire.

The flowers feature aventurine, bamboo coral, quartzite, jade, and crystal beads. The color palette we were given didn't include white, but the original inspiration fabric had sprays of white dotted flowers scattered throughout and I really wanted to include that detail, so I created the fringes made of glass pearls and more quartzite. For the blue of the color palette I used some beautiful (reconstituted) lapis beads around the sides of the necklace. All of the beads except the agate beads on the toggle, the tiny green crystals (around the outer edges of the green flower), and the glass pearls are Halcraft beads from Michaels.

  

This necklace may not embody the whole spirit of Marimekko, but I'd like to think it's a nice tribute to the inspiration fabric if nothing else. I also think it would be really fabulous recreated as a bridal necklace with pearls and fancy crystals (and maybe some pyrite for the slightly edgier bride? Or a few colorful accents in the bride's wedding colors...?). Hmmm, maybe my next project?

What do you like about Marimekko designs? Would you pair these colors all together in one piece of jewelry? Any interest in seeing a bridal version? I'd love to know.

Squash Blossom Necklace and Earrings: June Pretty Palette Challenge

 

 

THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE JEWELRY PROJECTS EVER. Seriously, I SO LOVED this entire process. I've wanted to make a squash blossom necklace for a longgggg time, but was unsure if I could convert what is normally a metalsmith project into a wire jewelry design and actually do it justice. When this month's Halcraft Pretty Palette Challenge theme was announced, I knew it was the perfect excuse to finally get my bum in gear and just try it.

For June's challenge the inspiration was a photo featuring the colors red, white, and turquoise and with distinctive tribal patterns against a background of earthy browns and taupish-gray. I knew a squash blossom necklace would be the perfect fit for the colors and tribal design!

This month's Pretty Palette inspiration photo. Check out the challenge here.

The color palette for this month's challenge.

To correspond with the given color palette I chose faceted white quartzite beads and a couple of varieties of red bamboo coral Halcraft beads from Michaels, turquoise howlite beads from Hobby Lobby, and for the taupe/gray and brown colors I chose silver-tone German style wire and small copper accent beads (I was probably pushing the color palette matching a little there, but I figure the earth-tone colors/metal elements all convey the same idea).

As squash blossom necklaces generally all have a similar layout, I knew ahead of time exactly how many components I wanted to make and how I wanted everything to fit together. (If you're unfamiliar with the squash blossom necklace, click here to see some images.) I made these components a little differently than I usually do, using my wire jig for only the main body shape and then my looping pliers (with multiple graduated sizes) to create all of the loops along the sides of the components.

 

I also embellished these frames a little differently than I have before. I wanted the turquoise beads to sit upside down (with their drilled top points facing downward), and I ended up going with a fishtail-style wrap to keep them secure and standing up straight. I think I'm happy with how they turned out, although it wasn't the aesthetic I'd originally had in mind. I'm a neat-and-tidy sort and sometimes struggle to appreciate wraps that look messy or random.

 

I used the faceted white quartzite beads to connect each of the wire components and the crescent pendant, and used some red bamboo coral beads around the neck to add a bit more visual interest (and because I really wanted more red in the necklace to pop against the turquoise). I kept the connector elements between the quarzite and coral beads small and simple, as I wanted the main focus to be on the fringed components and crescent pendant.

 

Similarly with the toggle clasp I kept the embellishment simple with only a few copper beads. All of the wire components, findings, fringe, and chain links are entirely handmade with German style wire, which makes this necklace (and the earrings) incredibly lightweight.

For the earrings I mimicked the design of the components along the sides of the necklace to create a matched set.

Here are few more photos just because I can't pick a favorite angle!

 

 

 

 

 And so you can get a better idea of their actual size:

Overall, I am so pleased with how this set turned out. It was one of those rare events where I think the final product turned out better than what I had originally envisioned.

 
What do you think, are you a fan of the squash blossom necklaces that are so popular right now? Do you like tribal-style jewelry trend and would you wear a piece of this size? I'd love know!

Greenery Glam Necklace and Earrings: May Pretty Palette Challenge

This month's Pretty Palette Challenge from Halcraft focused on the Pantone color of the year: Greenery. Below are the inspiration and color palette images from this month's challenge (from the Halcraft blog):

(Click here to visit the Pretty Palette Challenge.)

(Click here to visit the Pretty Palette Challenge.)

I chose to use the following mix of beads within the color palette for my design:

The pyrite, large aventurine, and small dark green tourmaline beads are from Hobby Lobby; the pale green faceted prehnite beads are a long-ago purchase from Fusion Beads in Seattle; and the small green quartzite, medium green aventurine, white quartzite, nebula glass, clear crystals, and silver luster glass beads are all Halcraft beads from Michael's.

I stuck to my usual wire-wrapping techniques this time, although I confess the end product is not the design I originally had planned. My original idea involved one single strand of smaller diamond-shaped focals and more emphasis on the upper part of the necklace, but because of the large size of the focal beads around which I planned the frames, the wire elements ended up being huuuuge, so I fell back on a previous design I've used several times (see most all of my prior Pretty Palette submissions...many of them [unintentionally] have a similar design/layout).

The basic forms I wrapped together to form the large diamond focal elements.

The wire form completed for one of the diamond focals.

Wire forms to be used for earrings and side connectors in the necklace.

I added beads in ombre shades of green to the diamond-shaped focal elements to try to give them a rich, jewel-like feel. Between the shape of the frames and the shades of green I hope I also managed to reflect a bit of the look of succulents as seen in the inspiration photo. [The frames were all created using the same technique as in this necklace. I embellished them using the same technique as in this necklace.]

I added white quartzite beads in between the focal elements to make the green really pop. (Also, you might notice in later photos that I eventually changed out the large, duller green aventurine center beads in these earlier photos for richer-colored bright green stones.)

I also wanted to continue to reflect the earthy inspiration image (the beautiful succulent plants in the photo above) in this necklace's structure, so I decided to use these slightly industrial, earthy pyrite beads to create the upper part of the necklace. I love this pyrite-meets-emeralds earthy-glam pairing! I don't think photos do these beautiful beads justice. Pyrite is really hard to photograph.

You can see the new green focal stones here. These are Halcraft beads as well.

Besides the three focal elements the side connectors and toggle clasp are all handmade as well, and embellished with clear crystals and silver luster glass to imitate the metallic shine of the pyrite.

Overall I'm happy with how this necklace turned out. It's too similar in style to a few of my recent pieces for my liking, but the earthy-glam pairing makes it a little different and really gives it a contemporary edge.

I made a couple extra wire frames to create a matching pair of earrings, and I wanted something a little different than the obvious chandeliers. I wanted something that felt glamorous enough to reflect the emerald-feel of the bejeweled necklace focals, and I think I managed to achieve at least 'unique', if not the glamour befitting emeralds.

These earrings were probably the hardest part of this entire set to create--getting them to hang at the same angle was close to impossible! Luckily, when worn they won't hang right next to each other and the slight difference in the angle of the frames won't even be noticeable.

And that wraps up another Pretty Palette challenge. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to do some photographic justice to these beautiful beads and not just how to wire-wrap them.

How do you like the pairing of the pyrite with the sparkling green jewels? What do you think of the unique earring orientation? I'd love to know!