I am very chuffed and a bit gobsmacked to have won the GBUK jewellery competition... here are a few pictures
Not brilliant pictures I'm afraid - will I never learn not to use pastel colours and white in things that I need to take decent photos of?
- but I hope they'll give you an idea.
I had real trouble choosing between 'Nursery Rhymes' and 'The Final Frontier'! I was briefly tempted to try to render Captain Kirk and Mr Spock in beadwork, but decided that would be beyond me... and then I was doing an FHFteam search on Etsy (as you do, or at least you do when you are me and a total bead addict
) and saw some lovely rosebud beads by Cecilia Lawrence (Midget Gem Beads). 'Ring A Ring A Roses' popped into my head and refused to go away.
Rings of roses? Yes, those I could do. But I needed something else to make the design specific to this rhyme and give it an edge, otherwise it would be just another pretty necklace with pretty flowers on it. I almost gave up and went back to the Final Frontier idea... then I started thinking, perhaps Kirk had it all wrong and death, not space, is the final frontier... and remembered that Ring A Roses has a myth attached to it, one that has been debunked many times but still persists, the idea that it's about the Black Death.
'Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down.'
Yes, that was my edge, and a way of combining both themes, and a macabre twist that appealed to my wicked side
If I could find some little lampwork skulls, I could make little wreaths of little dead people to go in amongst my pretty flowers and beaded bead posy pomanders
'Ashes in the water, ashes in the sea, we all jump up with a 1 - 2 - 3!'
And I could put little specks of ash grey in amongst the pretty colours, and use marble spacer beads for a hint of tombstones... oh yes, I was having fun thinking outside the box!
So I put out a call on here for someone to make me some little skulls, and the lovely Ruth of AR Beads answered it and made exactly what I wanted (even though at that stage I couldn't tell her exactly what I wanted them for
) and they worked brilliantly
Of course the piece was made at the last minute and in a big rush and there are things about it that I probably should have done differently, but it made me smile and thankfully it hit the right note with the judges too
It was fun working with beads by FHFteam makers whose beads I hadn't used before - it's always nice to spread the love
Huge thanks to both of you ladies, this win is a team effort really!
