November ABS Challenge Entry

It has been awhile since I have entered one of the Art Bead Scene's monthly challenges, but I am so excited with the necklace design I was able to come up with today to submit! This month's painting is The Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke by Richard Dadd.

I guess I will start at the beginning of my design process. The first piece I picked up was a ceramic pendant from Lisa Peters ART. As soon as I saw it on Etsy last week, I snapped it right up! Isn't it funny how a particular component becomes your favorite for a while and you end up coming up with so many design ideas for it? Well, that is what has been happening with these 10 hole wood bars I recently got at Hobby Lobby. At first, I thought I would hang the pendant from the wood bar all centered and perfect. But after I looked at it awhile, I decided to do it asymmetrical with the addition of a peacock feather on one side.

Okay, so I had my focal ready to go, now I had to decide what to use for stringing it. I started to search though my beads. Nothing was really grabbing my attention. I happen to look over to my shelf of jewelry and saw a choker I had made years ago with fancy jasper and a Green Girl Studios clasp. It was a really simple design that I loved, but the more I thought about it I couldn't remember the last time I wore it. I started to wonder why I didn't wear it - did I not like chokers? Did I think my long hair hid most of the pretty beads? Hmmmmm. In the end, I decided to use it in this necklace. My original thought was to start stringing the jasper up each side of the pendant and then putting the fairy clasp off to one side. But the more I looked at it, I discovered how cool it looked to separate the fairies so that they looked like they were holding each end of the pendant! Of course, the one that has the hook does still serve as the closure. The best part about it though: I didn't have to take the necklace apart at all!
I am absolutely in love with this necklace now! It embraces everything about me and my business name: peacocks and fairies!

Oh, if you'd like to see the choker in it's before state, I blogged about it here in my very early blogging days!