AJE Component of the Month Reveal - March

The components we had to work with this month were these lovely little hollow copper lentil beads made by Joanne Tinley of Daisy Chain Extra fame.

The fates seemed to be conspiring against me for this months challenge though...I always knew I was going going to struggle for time with all the things going on but this was exacerbated by the fact that the first bead Jo sent me never arrived and the second only made it here late last week...all a little frustrating when you think that Jo only lives about 25 miles from me!

The upshot of this was that when I finally set to work yesterday I had no option but to keep things simple to make sure I got the piece completed but, in the end that turned out to be no bad thing. Jo's bead is fairly small and as I wanted it to have some 'presence' I felt the piece need to be quite delicate. 

Since I've been working with bronze clay I've not used copper very much but after rummaging in the depths of my bead stash I found this pretty patinated copper pendant from Leann Weih of Summers Studio that I've had for years. It's quite light so I thought it would sit well with Jo's bead without overpowering it.

Jo also sent us some tiny charms with our beads and I combined these with the bead and the pendant to form a long focal element which I hung from a simple fine copper trace chain. I actually liked this just as it was but while I have no qualms about keeping things simple, I felt I hadn't really done much for a challenge piece. So after staring at it for a couple of hours I decided to add some light embellishment to the chain in the form of tiny turquoise rice beads and this was the final result.

I think there is a nice balance to the focal section which gives each piece equal prominence and I love the continuation of the chain with the heart dangles..

The necklace is actually quite long but I've pulled it back in this last picture to get a better perspective.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with it - it doesn't break any new ground but it's light, comfortable and eminently wearable and most of all, it think it does show of the beauty of Jo's bead. I hope you like it too.

You can see what the other participants made using the links below.

Carolyn (Carolyn's Creations)
Jess Green
Niky Sayers
Jo Tinley
Jennifer Cameron
 Jenny Davies-Reazor
Susan Kennedy
Linda Landig
Melissa Meman
Kristen Stevens
Francesca Watson
Lesley Watt



Lesley