Art Bead Scene August Challenge

At the beginning of the month, when ArtBeadScene posted this wonderful painting by Jack Savitski, I was immediately inspired to make a piece of jewelry.  My first thought and one I carried with me until it came time to actually make the piece was to use one of my toggle clasps, the one in the pic below.  The sun in this painting made me think of it.

What I like about this painting, and many primitive artists' work, is the way it makes my mind think in universals.  I felt the sphere of the earth and the many trials and joys of life when I looked at Jack Savitski's painting.  And I felt I could make a piece that reflected that sentiment.  But I wanted my piece to be happier than Jack's.  It sounds as if he had a very hard life, with little to look forward to.   He had his art and that must have been wonderful for him.  But....

I decided to use words in place of the people in his painting.  I chose words that I thought I would like to have represent my life.  I chose to focus on a life span as the time frame instead of a day. 

When it came time to put the bracelet together, I had sold the toggle clasp that was my original inspiration for the piece.  I had another one sort of similar but the colors were not quite right.   

Then I happened upon the one I ended up using and it was great for the color scheme that was developing. 

 I found those rust gold jump rings when I was at the Bead show in Montreal.  I just thought they might go well with copper.  And in the end they went super well with the copper, I think.

This is one of the few pieces I have ever made a drawing of before hand.  The words were helpful to refer back to as I made the stampings over a period of several weeks. 

Again, when it came time to put all these ideas together into a piece of jewelry, things did not happen as planned.   I found that my piece  was not a bracelet at all-- it was uncomfortable and the words were not really readable.  So a necklace was born.  I decided to name it Life Rise to refer back to the inspiration title, Sunrise.

I have really enjoyed the process of making and creating this necklace.  It has been exciting to feel so inspired.  Thank you ArtBeadScene.  And thank YOU for reading my post about it.