Wonder and Whimsy Monthly Challenge - February Reveal

It's a little late, but here it is: my reveal for this month's Wonder and Whimsy Monthly Challenge! Hurray!

As a little reminder, for this challenge I decided that I wanted to make jewelry based on the newly renovated and reopened rotunda of the Cincinnati Museum Center.

All in all, I made two necklaces for this theme. I had actually meant to make more, but I'm still quite happy with what I was able to make.

...And, without further ado, here are the finished necklaces! 


Necklace #1

This first necklace was inspired by the above picture that I took of the rotunda. Specifically, I was inspired by the combination of gold and silver, as well as the layers of rings. After playing around a little with those ideas, this is what I came up with:

The focal was made using layers: a gold wavy disc, a golden orange shell circle, and a silvertone rondelle... I chose to construct it the way that I did to best resemble the circular layers of the rotunda.

The necklace itself is knotted on waxed linen, and features a combination of glass and metal. Color-wise, I used a mix of gold and silver, with touches of topaz and orange--again, layered, to resemble the concentric circles of the inspiration. 

The overall necklace is a rather abstract interpretation of the inspiration picture... and, honestly, I'm exceedingly happy with how it turned out. Pictures don't quite capture how luxurious this necklace looks in the light... It is an interesting combination of modern simplicity and ancient decadence, and looks like something that you could buy at a Museum Store... which, I think, is very fitting for this challenge! :)


Necklace #2

For this second necklace, I decided to use this picture as my inspiration. It's similar to the previous one, but adds a bit of the mural as well... and, by that, I mean that it adds blue. :)

Oh, and I couldn't help myself... for this necklace, I decided to go Full Tassel.

You see, when I was planning for this challenge, I really wanted to represent the layers of the rotunda with the different layers of a giant tassel: the orange and yellow and gold mixed with lines of silver, eventually leading down to a shock of blue. And so, that's just what I did.

About the materials: 
The focal bead is an artisan made lampwork bead (sadly, artist is unknown). The large blue rounds are lapis lazuli and the blue bicones are vintage paper beads (not made by me).  The other beads are a combination of shell and glass, and the metal beads are all silver plated. I chose the materials to be as close to the picture as possible--I truly wanted to capture what it's like to enter the Cincinnati Museum Center and look up.

When making tassel necklaces, I usually like having the colors blend into each other... It was fun having them be so strongly separated by the silver beads--just like the concentric rings of the rotunda.

All in all, I'm extremely happy with how this necklace turned out. It's always fun taking colors that I usually don't pair together and still getting them to work. Getting the hues just right so that they work and still match the inspiration... well, all I can say is: hurray for color theory! :)

...And, what can I say? I like having an excuse to make a giant tassel necklace. 

Here is one more comparison for you:

So, there you go! Those are the necklaces that I made for this month's challenge. I really enjoyed working with this challenge... I hope you enjoyed seeing what I made!

Thanks so much for stopping by today... Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!