Last Friday in February - The stumped designer

Today is the last Friday in February. Do you know what that means?

It is Artisan Clay reveal day :-)

I am so excited to show you this necklace because I struggled with it. Yes that's right I was stumped. I had no clue what I was going to make.

It went something like this...
Hmm. I could make earrings.
That might be cool but you said you were going to push yourself creatively this year.
Yes but it's due in 3 days and I have to work at the salon those days and earrings would be easy.
Yes but you didn't want to do easy.
Ugh I know but what. A necklace? Yikes!
Go look at your bead stash.
Ok, ok, I'm going.
Yes that's me talking to myself. I do that from time to time.

This month I received 2 of these circle recycled glass pendants from Kristie's Shop, Artisan Clay.
I have received these before in another Design Challenge, remember these?
For My Sweet Daughter May 2011
I left them on the counter for a few days while I sketched what I wanted to do. Then I got sick and took a week off from everything. I barely even touched Facebook so you know I was really sick ;-)

The design all started when I found these 2 polymer clay beads from Barbara Bechtel of Floridity. The brown and lime green were the perfect compliment and rustic feeling I was going for.
Now what to pair with them? I knew I wanted a circle or circle like object. I pulled out all my circles from Vintaj and different ceramic artists but nothing seemed to work. Then during my drive home from work the other day it hit me. I had this awesome bronze ammonite connector donut from Staci Louise at SLArtisanAccents. Perfect!

Then I went to my collection of smoky quartz beads and found this faceted round bead and this funky nugget which I love but rarely use hoard.
I was struggling with the final part of the necklace because the bead I had in place was so not working.  I called over my business advisor, my husband, and I pulled out several different lampwork beads. I was striking out till I remembered this tiny box of beads I had from Pink Beach. Bingo! I grabbed the brown and raku beads and started working.

I wanted to make the connections sturdy so I used a double loop technique with 22 gauge wire and I did a messy wire wrap to add to the rustic feeling.
I connected the segments to each other so that visually they worked as one unit. I find separating them with jump rings gives a different feeling (which I love for my other pieces).
I wire wrapped the donut with 22 gauge wire to make it a connector and attached it right to the pendant, then got to adding the other elements.
On the Pink Beach bead I textured (beat to heck) 2-10mm  Vintaj natural brass washers. Then I wrapped wire around the Vintaj hook clasp.
Through the 2 etched jump rings I threaded silk from Marsha Neal of MarshNealStudio in a beautiful pumpkin color, tied 2 knots, trimmed the silk and I was d-o-n-e.

Thank you for visiting and be sure to check out the other participants.

~Shannon

Now if you have read to all the way down here I have a surprise for you. I got 2 of these pendants. I only used one. I am going to give the other one away to a random reader who leaves a comment telling me how much they love what I made, or hated it let's be honest here. I will use random.org to help me pick a winner on Monday 2/27, although I can be bribed with pie and chocolate ;-)