A different season...

 "Winter Solstice"

(Necklace)   Price: $60.00 

 When I started creating this necklace, it was all about the 'engineering' following an 'I wonder if I can make that work?' moment. Do you recognize the top of the focal? Right. It's the same base branch that has become one of my favourite building blocks...only in aged bronze. The engineering bit I was contemplating was the curved side pieces with all of the loops. Layering them and wrangling them into position was very fiddly and produced soft cussing and searches for dropped tiny jump rings, beads, findings and tools. Sigh. My worktop is tiny and not ideal, and the whatever I'm working on tends to drift off the table and into my lap while I'm wrestling with two tiny pairs of pliers...one not necessarily designed for that type of work. I have yet to make getting better tools a priority. Anyway, the bronze was very dull on its own, so I chose a gold element for the central focal and drops to wake it up a bit and add brighter supports for the stones. Vintage red Venetian glass coin beads for 'pow' and the green of the pure Malachite for contrast. I found the singular Malachite triangle bead in the stash I bought from Lisa in February of 2025 and it fit the balance perfectly, along with the Venetian glass bead below it. Satisfied that I had achieved my 'engineering' dreams, I sat the completed piece on my show stand so I could look at it for awhile. However, it took me a full 24 hours to figure out why it reminded me of Christmas. I was still in a building frame of mind rather than a 'oh, isn't that pretty?' one. Once my perspective shifted, I finally saw the green tree shape and 'ornaments' dangling from a 'Victorian' frame chandelier. I had a good laugh, and now I can't unsee any of that, so I deemed it 'Winter Solstice'. 

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. 

Cheers,

Marianne