The Jenny Monthly Challenge - February Reveal

It's time for this week's last reveal--the reveal of what I made for my personal February Challenge! 

Yay!

As you may recall, this month's challenge was focused on origami. Basically, I had picked up a Deluxe Origami Jewelry Kit from Barnes and Noble on clearance, and wanted to make something with it.

After all, just look at these beautiful papers!

These are the origami papers that were included in the kit.

So, I got to work making things! Using the directions from the book included with the kit, I made two different designs: butterflies and kusudama units, in a variety of different sizes. And then, feeling emboldened, I went online and learned how to make origami leaves as well.

Then, once I finished pieces I was pleased with, I gave them all a nice protective coat of Triple Thick Glaze. The book recommended using polyurethane, but I decided to use what I had on hand. 

Here you can see my pieces about to be glazed (including a giant butterfly that I want to make into a Christmas tree ornament at some point):

Everything I needed: glaze, origami pieces, paintbrush, and coffee.

Coating the pieces is what makes them sturdy enough to incorporate into jewelry... And incorporate them into jewelry, I did! 

Overall, I made three sets: one for each type of origami I had learned. For fun, I'm going to show these off in the reverse order that I made them. 

So! To begin with, here was my original idea for the butterfly necklace...

...And, from that, I made this is the final set:

I used orange freshwater pearls, pink mother-of-pearl rounds, and pink vintage German beads--both rounds and teardrops. I was trying to choose colors that complemented the sunshiney origami paper that I had used for the butterfly.

The second set that I made was the one with the kusudama units.

I had several to chose from--from two different color schemes: orange/pink and teal blue. Ultimately, I decided to make something with the larger orange/smaller peach units (because I already had a blue set--the leaves).

Here, I was gathering materials:

You can't quite tell, but there really is a color difference between
the large and small kusudama units.

...And this is the final set:

The set is made with goldenrod freshwater pearls, two different shades of crystal, and copper.

And yes, the earrings are missing earwires, because apparently I am out of copper ones. Oops. That will be remedied soon; I just wasn't able to get some in time for this reveal.

And now for my favorite set--the leaf set, which was actually the first one that I made.

Here are the materials I gathered together...

I am in love with those purple-teal-shiny Czech glass rondelles. Just saying.

...And this is what I came up with!

This set is made with Czech glass, teal freshwater pearls, wood heishi beads, and copper. And I really love it.

Now, you may have noticed that all three necklaces are a variation of the same design: a long necklace where chain gives way to a series of beads, which then gives way to a pendant. It wasn't actually a conscious decision that I made; they each just developed that way, partially because of the weight of the origami pieces. 

In fact, weight was my only problem in making these necklaces--even coated, the origami pieces are so light that weighting the necklaces to lay right proved rather difficult. Anything too short was constantly moving around or flipping over. So, I decided to go with longer designs, where natural movement was expected. That decision was further reinforced when I realized that too many beads drowned out the elegance of the origami, so more chain/less beads ended up being a good thing!

And while weight was a bit of a problem for the necklaces, it was certainly not a problem for the earrings. Each pair of earrings I made are extremely light and have wonderful movement. I find them a joy to wear! (Especially the butterflies!)

So! There you have it. Those are the pieces that I made for this month's challenge. It is always fun taking something like paper--something not usually associated with beads--and turn it into jewelry. Pearls and paper--what a lovely combination!

Thank you so much for joining me for this reveal! It's been a busy week here on my blog, and it's been a pleasure to share my creations with you. Now, to finalize preparations for March's challenge! :) 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!