Art Jewelry Elements - July 2014 Component of the Month Giveaway/Challenge

I was so completely honored to be chosen as one of three Reader Winners for the July 2014 Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month Giveaway!  Still dancing & skipping gleefully here!  That will likely go on for quite a while!

Earlier this week, I revealed which Francesca Watson cabochon was sent to me.  Oh, it's beautiful.  Lovely greens, slightly sage, slightly minty, hints of grassy green.  It also has glimmers of blue and copper, with small black flecks.  Awesomeness all around...my favorite color and tons of style.

My first challenge was to select 'the perfect beads' to coordinate. During the week my cabochon was expected to arrive here in Delaware, I decided to visit one of my favorite vintage bead shops at Etsy, named beadbrats. The shop owner is Marie, who carries a marvelous selection of vintage bead stock. After filling my shopping cart with several options, I mentioned the AJE COM news to Marie. She included a few extra beads with my order, in a slightly different colorway..and look what happened!..these are right out of their shipping wrappers (beadmat-spur-of-the-moment pic):

Did anything ever go-together so perfectly the first time!?!  Thank you, Marie!

What to do next?  To compliment the gorgeous shimmer of both the cabochon and these beads, it seemed that rich, mellow copper components were needed (silver was too 'cold'; gold a 'no-go'). At my request, Francesca had drilled a stringing hole at the top of the cabochon. I remembered purchasing a detailed Tierra Cast copper pinch bail at a bead event years ago! Thinking that would work for my design, but not remembering exactly where it was stashed (oh no!!), a great search & find mission began within my beading room walls. Whew, found it!..along with a bunch of other forgotten lovely things! That moment was immediately followed by selecting a batch of swirling copper beads, also purchased many many years ago. These had mellowed with a soft patina that everyone loves in copper.  YAY!

Then...for days afterwards, I struggled to 'make' something. Perfect colors and components were sitting in front of me, so what was wrong?  Stringing, un-stringing, re-stringing...different design..too complex...not complex enough..where had my muse gone?

Finally, on a whim, I pulled this out of my collection...

...and my 'first ever' attempt to use Sari Silk was realized (about time, too!).  Also included are a handful of size 8 green/coppery Japanese seed beads and copper SoftFlex wire. I decided to keep the whole process simple and soft in order to let the vibrant color and beautiful components shine:

This was such a wonderful experience. Here's what I learned:

"Keep it simple, soft...let the colors and beads speak"

Thank you to AJE, Francesca and Marie for this wonderful opportunity!

Please take a look at what everyone created!  That's where I'll be!
Here is the full list of designer links:

Guest Designers

Deb Fortin  - www.studiok24blogspot.ca

Toltec Jewels - wwwJewelSchoolFriends.com

The AJE Team

Caroline Dewison - blueberribeads.blogspot.co.uk

Susan Kennedy - www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Melissa Meman - melissameman.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies-Reazor - www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Kristen Stevens - kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Francesca Watson - www.francescawatson.com

Carol  :)