Creative heART Challenge: Day 11...

I thought that I could get two birds with one stone, so for Day 11 of the Creative heART Challenge, I'm also posting Cloud Bridge Design Challenge piece.  If you're not familiar with the Design Challenges, I put together kits and we send them out all over the world.  Every month there's a new reveal and people share the creations that they made with as much or as little of the kit as they desire.

The Cloud Bridge kit was inspired by the Pantone Color of the Year selection for 2016.  It wasn't just one color, but a blending of TWO!  The two colors selected were Rose Quartz and Serenity.  When I looked at these colors, I instantly thought of sky and clouds.  (Oddly enough, the banner that I made for the Creative heART Challenge is "Pantone correct".  I didn't even realize that until the two images were up against each other.)

I've been on a roll making these asymmetrical pieces.  I love how I can blend an eclectic mix of beads and make things flow together.  I remember when I first started making jewelry and asymmetrical designs weren't really popular.  I embraced it as my "thing".  After awhile though, I got a little burnt out and wanted to tackle symmetry.  I also didn't want to be a one trick pony.  (Later I discovered the connection between visual branding and my jewelry and I sort of kicked myself for not taking advantage of it more, but such is hindsight.)  Anyway, I had fallen out of the practice of making asymmetrical pieces and have recently revisited this in my jewelry making.

In this piece, I mixed a lot of different elements from the kit.  It can be worn as a wrapped bracelet or a long necklace.  It can also be worn with the clasp in the back or off to the side.  I think it has a lot of versatility.  In this piece, I also challenged myself to use the vintage sequins.  People love the look of them in the mixes, but often times shy away from actually using them.  In this piece, I used them to buffer beads.  This is particularly useful if a bead has a bigger hole and is next to a smaller bead that might otherwise get swallowed up by the bead with the bigger hole.  It also gives a hint of color and works to unify the piece.

Here's a second piece that uses bits from the kit!  Again, it's an asymmetrical piece.  I included some chunky simple cut rose quartz, pink opal rondelles, blue chalcedony rondelles, aquamarine rounds, Czech glass rounds, and a bronze bird toggle from my family at Green Girl Studios.  As spacers, I used grey Japanese seed beads with a pearlescent finish.  I could have used metal spacers, but I think these beads give it a softer look.  The necklace is light and airy and because there's a decorative clasp and it's an asymmetrical piece, the wearing options are many!

If you want to see more creations made by participants of the Cloud Bridge Challenge, CLICK HERE.  We post our pieces in a Facebook group devoted to the Design Challenges.  It's a great place to keep up to date with the latest news and information about the kits and to interact with other participants!