Wonder and Whimsy Monthly Challenge - November Reveal

Well, here it is, my reveal for my November Monthly Challenge--better late than never! I keep forgetting just how busy the end of November tends to be... Ah well. Still, I'm thrilled to finally get a chance to show off what I made for this challenge!

As a refresher, November's challenge was to make jewelry inspired by a recent trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art. (All sorts of pictures, and links, and an introduction to the challenge, can be found here.)

Entrance to the BMA.

...I really loved this challenge.

In fact, I had more ideas than I had time. There are quite a few more pieces I have in the works; we'll see when I get a chance to make them.

What I did make goes into two categories: jewelry inspired by the Antioch Mosaics, and jewelry inspired by the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

First up:

The Antioch Mosaics

Rodin's The Thinker, the guardian of the mosaics. 

First, I went through my stash and picked out beads that matched the color palette present in the photographs I took:

...And then, I got out some pendant making supplies! :)

I had purchased a few postcards while visiting the museum (multiples--one to keep, and one to cut up), and thought it would be fun to use them in this challenge. The above is one of the mosaic postcards, which I turned into this:

...Yep, that is an Antioch Mosaic pendant with matching earrings! It's coupled with pearl, glass, crystal, and labradorite.

I also made another pendant, which I turned into this necklace:

Wire-wrapped links of brass, pearl, citrine, and labradorite complete the design.

I also made one more set. While I didn't have any more handmade pendants, I did find some white howlite beads in my stash that I thought matched the antique aesthetic of the mosaics. And so, using many of the same materials, I made this:

Tassel!

Again, the necklace uses brass, pearl, crystal, citrine, and labradorite--and the aforementioned white howlite. After all, it wouldn't be one of my challenges if I didn't figure some way to make a tassel necklace. ;)

So! Those are the pieces that I made to go along with the Antioch Mosaics found at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Here are all of the pieces together:

And here are the two pendant necklaces, posing with the intact postcard... I think they do justice to the original source material, don't you agree? :)

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Next up, as you probably guessed: the pieces inspired by the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany.  

As with the mosaics, I decided to use one of the postcards that I had purchased during my visit.

Not the awesome Baptism of Christ window seen above, but very cool nonetheless.
And in the same colors!

And, from that postcard, I made this!

...Yep, even with matching earrings.

The pendant is made from the vase's central design, at the center of the postcard. I decided to couple it black glass and aqua shell.

...And that's not all! As with the Antioch Mosaics, I also made a pendant with a brass backing. Using it, I made this second set:

This set is made with brass, turquoise, glass, citrine, and reconstituted stone. Oh, and of course, the pendant.

I think this set captures the beautiful play of color seen in the postcard, as well as the large window shown above. I love the combination of yellow and blue and iridescent black... and I was thrilled at the way the reconstituted stones have patterns reminiscent of the glass panels!

And, just for fun, here are the two necklaces with the source postcard:

Oh! And I also have one more piece in the works... Here's a sneak peak!

Reconstituted stone paired with amber, hand knotted on silk.

So, there you go! Those are the pieces that I made for this monthly challenge... As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed myself. Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Have a wonderful evening, everyone!


(And please pardon any grammatical errors in this post... I just finished writing my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month. I am triumphant, but my words are tired.)