Treasures by Louise

My necklace from Jeannie K. Dukic was a chain of beautiful semi-precious jade and faceted czech glass crystals. A long wire wrapped chain by Jeannie Dukic, jade and Czech crystals Coordinating Bracelet   Earrings to match I had a moment of hesitation as I cut into the beautiful chain of wire wrapped jade and crystals. The delicacy of the chain was not to be matched...at least by me. But I had a vision, so I went ahead. At first I planned to remove the crystals and go all "natural", I wanted to add a complementary color and some variety of shapes to the chain. The lovely chain became a lariat, as I decided to keep the ring part of the toggle, and I spliced in wire wrapped sections of red agate and sections of rust-tone Czech disc beads with the crystals. The crystals became a contrasting texture to the stones and disc beads. The decision on the focal came later, after auditioning a number of artisan beads I recently ordered. Auditioning some porcelain foca...

I just signed up for Jeannie K. Dukic's Jewelry Do-over challenge with JKD Studios. This is a different take on a jewelry design challenge. Participants must have a blog. For a small postage fee, Jeannie sends some of her old non-artisan jewelry creations. The challenge is to photograph the before, and using 50% of the jewelry, make something new. Designers are encouraged to use artisan and hand crafted beads/components in their new designs. I have watched this blog challenge for at least the last two and decided to make the jump and try this one for the first time. You can sign up,  too! To learn more about Jeannie, the Do Over Challenges or her Echo Creative Club, visit her new blog at: http://wheethepeople2.wordpress.com/