Keletica's Dialectic
| My first design competition--"Timeless Asymmetry" |
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| Written by Gayle Knapp |
| Wednesday, 27 May 2009 14:28 |
Two things combined in January to allow me to enter my first design competition. First, I'd resolved to reduce/compact/declutter my personal jewelry collection. Second, BeadStyle magazine offered an intriguing challenge--to make something fresh from odds and ends in your jewelry box. Inspired by the latter, I rediscovered heirlooms that had languished in obscurity for years. Two of these heirlooms, the watch chain and fob which belonged to my great-grandfather, became the focal points of my redesign. The watch chain had a black bar (for inserting into the buttonhole of a vest) which would work as half of a toggle clasp (adding a purchased Vintaj ring charm). I needed the other half of a necklace and decided to use a half strand of bakelite beads that have a story of their own. These were part of a necklace that belonged to my grandmother. One summer a cousin and I needed jewelry for our dolls and half a strand each worked perfectly. Being a sentimentalist, I kept these "useless" beads. Now, they have a use in my heirloom necklace. The old wire joining the bakelite beads was weakened from misuse. So, I removed it. I made a set of new bead links--using fresh copper wire and antiqued copper beads for added visual interest. These links were joined to form a segment equal in length to the watch chain. The watch fob was supposed to be the pendant, but was too small--overwhelmed by the dimensions of the watch chain. So, I rooted around in my collection of focal gemstones and found the hypersthene cross. It was too "flashy" and modern alone with the fob and needed "something" to tie it into the rest of this design. Wrapping it with copper chain solved the problem.
With the design finished I scanned it and submitted the picture to Bead Style. Lo and behold, it made it into the semi-finals to be published in the July 2009 issue along with four other submissions. Readers get to vote for their favorite and the winner gets featured in the November issue. Shamelessly, I solicit your vote! Please go to the Bead Style Magazine online ballot page and vote for my design. Voting is open until July 9, 2009. |
