Prayers at Sunrise

 

Morning Prayers, Bracelet in Turquoise, Charoite, Citrine, Glass

I'm entering my first art contest ever: the Art Bead Scene Turquoise Color Challenge, which you can learn more about here. The task: combine turquoise, purple, and pale yellow in a piece of jewelry that includes one or more art beads. This is my entry; I based it on a set of prayer beads I made in 2007 that I'd been thinking of turning into a bracelet and had to restring anyway because the knotted silk cord I used was fraying. This piece uses charoite (the divine purple stones, all natural -- most "charoite" I see lately is dyed Zebra jasper or very poor quality charoite), turquoise, citrine, handmade "sugared" glass discs, and sterling and Balinese silver. I made this to fit me because I'm keeping it.

Looking at past challenges and winning entries I see that the emphasis is more on seed beading, which is something I just don't do because I lack the dexterity and am also losing my close-up vision... and I really don't think I have the patience for it. In any case, I really enjoyed this challenge both because turquoise and purple is such a wonderful color combination (and I love how the citrine yellow warms it up) and because it inspired me to sit down at my long-neglected -- and now CLEAN -- jewelry workbench. Well, it was clean yesterday.... So I guess I need to spend the afternoon finishing the other four projects currently cluttering it: two necklaces that include pendants I wirewrapped myself, earrings for an Etsy order, and some copper findings that I'm the process of soldering. Yes, soldering, thanks to an iron I found in the garage and some instruction, flux, and soldering wire from a friend. I've been dying to do metalwork...