Octoberfest Challenge

Today is the Octoberfest Challenge at http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/ . The minute I saw this challenge I thought of the copper leaves on a wall sculpture from my friend Ceil and I knew that I would use one of them. However the rest of the necklace turned out nothing like how I pictured it in my head at the start. I associate fall with nature so I decided to use mostly natural elements in my design. After I clipped the leaf from the sculpture I knew it needed copper accents so I made a copper coil with a brown pearl dangle to complete the focal. I hung it from a short copper chain and used a glass tube bead for the bail. The other dangles are two brown pearls and four double 4mm brown Swarovski bicones. My friend Cindy gave me the brownAB faceted glass coins and I thought they would draw the eye to the focal so I strung them front and center. Then I placed four bone discs. The next set of four beads are some kind of seeds that my friend Ruby brought me back from her trip to Hawaii. Following that is another set of the bone discs. Then comes four wood slices from my friend Lori and more bone discs. Following that is a set of four faceted round picture jasper beads and the last set of bone discs. I made the clasp from 16 gague copper wire. Since this necklace has components from so several of my friends it has special meaning to me. I associate copper with fall for it's rich color so this necklace is a perfect example of fall to me. I hope that you like my design. Please click on the link above to see what the other participants made for this challenge. Thank you Rita for hosting  this challenge I really enjoyed making this necklace.

Today is Jeannie Dukic of wheethepeople2.wordpress.com Do Over Challenge 8. The picture above is the necklace that I received from her to redo. I like all the color but I think that together they were too much so I separated them into two necklaces.  I always find these challenges fun. It is interesting to look at something with new eyes.

This is the first necklace that I made. I liked the purple nuggets and the large red rounds together.   I put the red rounds front and center and  I separated them with black glass rondelles and added three hematite drops for interest. The added color idea came from the veining in the red rounds. Next I added hematite colored peanut beads between the nugget clusters for texture.   A simple snap clasp finishes this necklace. I apologize for the fuzzy pic but I am having some issues with my camera.

Necklace number two uses the pretty green faceted drops and the silver flower focal from Jeannie's necklace. Between the pairs of drops I put large navy blue pearls. Separating the pairs I used some silver flat rounds with flowers on them to coordinate with the silver flower focal. Silver chain and a toggle clasp finish this simple necklace.  I think that this piece is very wearable and showcases the drops better that the original necklace does. I used all of the beads in the original necklace in these two pieces and only have bead caps, spacers and the clasp left. To see what the other participants did please click on the link above.

The necklace I am showing today is a triple spiral rope. I have had it stitched for months but I never put the clasp on until yesterday. I am looking forward to wearing this fun piece. It is stitched in my  favorite colors including purple which I have been gravitating to lately. I like spiral ropes. They are fun to stitch and work up fast.