June 22, 2013

Year of Jewelry Week 25 - Solstice

Micro macrame necklace with polymer clay focal by Ke Robinson

The theme for The Year of Jewelry this week is solstice.  Festivities can involve wearing crowns of flowers and celebrating the fertility of the earth.  One Swedish tradition involves a woman gathering seven different kinds of flowers from seven different gardens and putting them under her pillow so she will dream about her future spouse.  I couldn't think of a more perfect piece to represent the summer solstice than this floral pendant by Ke Robinson.  

Ke's paintings are extravagantly full of color and unabashed celebration.  Her pelican paintings are magical and her aquatic scenes are enchanting.  I'm a total fan of her work, can you tell?  Go look at her Facebook page.  I'll wait here for you.  You'll be glad you did, I promise.

You're back?  Was I right?  When Ke offered to send me one of her beads, I jumped on the opportunity!  And I wasn't disappointed.  Her polymer clay pieces are every bit as whimsically colorful as her paintings.  

Spiral micro macrame necklace by Sherri Stokey of Knot Just Macrame

After a couple of false starts, I came up with this design.  Oh, you want to see what I didn't like?  Okay, hold  on...

Cut off snippets of failed macrame design

See those snippets off to the left?  Those are tries one and two.  I just wasn't satisfied with the colors in either of them - they were either too insipid for the pendant or fighting for attention.  I finally settled on a chartreuse green and dark greenish blue combination that makes me think of sunlight and shadows on foliage.  I did a spiral knotting technique to produce a fairly substantial necklace and added two more of Ke's beads in fuchsia for an unexpected pop of color along the way.

Hand crafted brass hook and chain closure with Vintaj charm

I used some brass end caps to finish the ends and added a length of chain to make the necklace adjustable.  A lobster clasp just didn't seem special enough, so I fashioned a hook from some brass wire.  A little Vintaj leaf finishes off the chain.

Knotted spiral macrame necklace designed by Sherri Stokey

And thank you, Ke, for letting me design with one of your pieces!

10 comments:

  1. OH WOW! Thank u so much Sherri for using my bead :) I still can't get over how u just 'wing' everything and create such intricate pieces!

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  2. The darker fiber color came out just perfect. It sets the focal off in the most beautiful way I could ever imagine. You are an amazing macrame artist!!! I'm really looking forward to exploring your site from top to bottom as soon as I get back home. On vacation now so time is limited. How wonderfully inspiring =)

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  3. This is truly an amazing technique and a gorgeous design!

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  4. Is that spiral braid kumihimo or macrame?

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    1. It is macrame. I keep thinking I'm going to learn kumi one of these days!

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  5. Hi Sherri, beautiful piece, I'm trying to do a spiral braid like yours...what knot is that?

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  6. any secret to attaching that beautiful charm or did it have a super large whole?

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I'd love to hear from you!

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