Reveal - SJ Designs Jewelry Honey Do List April Design Challenge!

Every month, Sarajo Wentling over at SJ Designs Jewelry hosts the Honey Do List Challenge... It's where her husband, Eric, issues her a beading challenge with the intent that she both use up some of her bead stash and get out of her comfort zone. Luckily for me, they let other people play along to!

This month, the inspiration was bright and sunny--a refreshing burst of color in contrast to this April's grey weather:



This is what Eric said about it:
Spring? Not so much. We have more crappy snow coming down as I write this post. So, how about a picture evoking brighter days to come? I took this last spring at a local orchard in Buffalo, MN and loved the bright yellow bike. Let us see some bright and vibrant work this month! 

I, for one, was certainly grateful for a cheery palette to work with! :)

...And, since I apparently don't have anything bike-themed in my stash, I decided to draw my main inspiration from that bright-and-cheerful palette. Now, my first two attempts to make something did not turn out well at all... Thankfully, though, third time's the charm!

This is what I finally was able to come up with:

My creative breakthrough came when I found that focal bead in my stash... It's handmade by a glass artisan in Rochester, New York, and the colors are perfect for this challenge. It has the yellow of the bike, the blue of the sky, the green of the grass... it even has the white of the distant clouds. With that bead, the necklace practically made itself!

Oh, and I chose the goldtone circles to--abstractly--represent the bicycle wheels. If you look closely at the texture on the outer circle, it looks a bit like tire-tread! :)

The other materials are: vintage German glass (yellow), modern glass (green), magnesite (dark teal), and Chinese crystal (faceted light teal). Oh, and goldtone metal. :)

So, there you go! My interpretation may be a bit abstract, but hopefully it still does justice to the inspiration.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see what I made--and thank you to Sarajo and Eric for letting me play along! Be sure to hop over to SJ Designs Jewelry to see what she made.

Have a lovely day, everyone!