Creative heART Challenge: Day 4...

Only two necklaces for Day Four!  It might seem like my creativity and production ability has steadily been on the decline and is drying up, but I've been working in the background on a lot of different pieces.  William has said that I've been working too much and that I'm overdoing it.  I might have to scale back my ambition a bit, because it's only the fourth day of this creative challenge and I'm already starting to feel a little threadbare.  The ideas are there, the energy to do it all... not so much.

Some of the projects that I'm working on in background are new materials and I want to experiment a little more before I start listing things.  I like to troubleshoot and see how things will wear and if I can do something better.  Once I feel confident in them, I'll showcase them.  Also... some of the work I'm doing just takes a long time.  Layers of medium have to dry completely before I can go back on top of them.  These things can't be rushed without ill effect.  With the paintings, I've fallen into this weird bashful protectiveness.  I guess they're so new and raw to me that I am not ready to share them yet nor am I really ready to do process pictures.  The way that I work, I build in secret layers.  Sometimes people see glimpses or catch snippets, but sometimes the viewer can't – but those layers and secrets are still there, just like people.  I'll be posting some small paintings and some larger ones!  Maybe next week!

If you're curious what I've made so far and have listed, CLICK HERE.

I'm on this kick of raiding my stash and utilizing some of my prized beads.  Some of them I've had for a long time and haven't seen the likes of again.  Now, whenever I go shopping for beads and I see something that I love, I snap it up.  I've learned that sometimes if you wait, thinking that you'll go back and it'll be there later, the opportunity will pass you by and you'll kick yourself for years that you didn't get it.  At least that's my experience.  I have a couple of strands floating around in my subconscious, haunting me that I didn't get them when I saw them!

This necklace features a blend of faceted garnets and tourmaline.  There's something about simple-cut that makes my heart go pitter-patter!  I think it's one of the most elegant of cuts, because it allows the gemstone to sing!  Also, with some other cuts, a lot of lovely material gets removed.  This isn't to say that I don't like or won't use other cuts... because I will.  I just happen to love the facets and organic elegance of simple-cut stones!

When I use super nice materials and have fancy clasps, I like to make them as versatile as possible.  With these necklaces, the clasp can be worn in back like regular, or it can be rotated to the side.  This way the wearer gets the maximum usage out of the piece!

These lozenge rubies have long been a prize in my collection!  I was at a show and had just sold a bunch of my work and had a little extra spending money.  I saw them at a friends booth and with the lights shining on them and the facets sparkling, it was like the money in my back pocket burnt a hole straight through!  At the time my face was all flush and I felt slightly feverish and I think I was so happy to acquire them that I felt a little high.  They still make my heart race!  But I'm just a sucker for rubies anyway.  In this piece, I paired the lozenges with faceted ruby rondelles, and faceted ruby rounds!  So juicy!

Keep checking back to see all the things that I've been working on!  And thank you so much for joining me on this creative journey.  It makes my heart light to know that so many people are following along and showing their support!