Echo Creative Club - October edition

Welcome to the October edition of the Echo Creative Club - the lovely brain child of Jeannie Dukic.

As you well know by now, Jeannie is sending each of the designers one of her polymer clay components and we ask our muse to kindly help in creating something that would make it justice!

This month I chose the cherry blossom ~ matching some incredible new 'blooming' I am doing right now (which I will be able to reveal soon, I hope...).

It started like this:

Then Thanksgiving (Canadian version) happened and I had to move my stuff from my desk onto our places (seeing that my desk is really the dining room table :) ) and the day after Thanksgiving I said to myself "let's start working"... then I promptly panicked, as I could not find the cherry blossom! Out came Theresa's glass cab, Cynthia's tribal mask, Natalie's ceramic sets... and at the bottom of the basket there smiled to me the pink beauty.

I was so happy to have found it that I ignored my self-promise to never touch the brass wire I still have around. Since I have no gold-filled wire, brass it is - it had to match the gold in the middle of the blossom!

I sketched one idea and realized it's not going to happen with this brass; I was out of antique bronze (which is soft and nice and usable)... back to the drawing board to find another idea. While I was working away on Cynthia's gorgeous piece I turned ideas in my mind and one of them clicked!

The focal was born - and I didn't like it. The concept - yes, the result?! not really. It was clear to me it's both the gauge (too thin) and the size of the focal itself (too large). Out came the 18 gauge, the bracelet mandrel, ring mandrel, the hammer (the wire it's not only hard, it's also springy - I had to hammer it down to convince it to stay at the size I wanted it to be) and ta-daa, success:

Cherry blossom by Jeannie Dukic, brass, died jade, seed beads

For the neckpiece I decided to use one of my favourite tricks: half metal, half fabric:

Double wire wrapped jade - links again!

For the fabric side I went for a new idea: cotton cord (the one used for Kumihimo) and embroidery floss in many, many strands :) All braided in a 4-thread braid - I liked it!

4-thread braid & brass - messily wrapped 

And when we put all of them together we get: Golden Spring:

For some strange reasons I figured out my fingers need more beating and I made one charm, then another... I'll finish them as earrings now :)

I seriously need to learn a better way to photograph long necklaces... hope you got the idea :)

Many thanks to Jeannie: for giving me the opportunity to participate in her special club, and for providing her amazing art components. I love working with them!

Thank you for stopping by and please check everybody else's creations - it promises to be a great gathering!

Alicia Marinache <- you are here
Charlie Jacka
Dagi 
Jeannie K Dukic
Lisa Lodge