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necklaces

comments (1) January 15th, 2009 in gallery

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meristem, member

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With the rising costs of airline travel, the only way I can imagine getting a ride to paradise is on a bird.. And this bird offers first-class accommodations, and whimsy all-the-way.. If we can't literally travel to paradise, we can always have paradise fly to us..

This piece was inspired by a friend and fellow wire jewelry artist, Sheela of http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=97619 who constantly inspires me with her work and her words. I took a concept that she is well known for (birdies) and put a little Meristem twist on it.. I have also incorporated the theme of "orchids" with the links on either side of the bird, for this week's theme challenge for The Wire Artisans Guild..

Bird frame (body and wing) was constructed by forming, hammering, and soldering sterling silver wire. The "tail" was constructed by hammer-tapered wire that was bundled and wrapped to the frame. I then commenced to fill in my bird. The beak and eye is a piece of an antique necklace, the underside is wrapped with sterling silver beads in descending size. The wing is wrapped with purple, purple-red, turquoise, and green stripes. The purple is amethyst for the larger beads, and sapphires for the smaller ones. The purple-red is garnet for the larger beads and spinel for the small ones. The turquoise is neon apatite and swarovski crystal. The green is vessonite, prehnite, rutilated quartz, peridot, and swarovski crystal. The tail is adorned with a double drilled cubic zirconia, followed by peacock fresh water pearls. The top of the bird is wrapped with 2 cubic zirconia briolettes and a mystic quartz briolette. The link on the tail side was wrapped completely in wire and showcases 2 pink tourmaline briolettes. The link on the beak side is one piece of heavy gauge wire that is clustered with chalcedony, ruby, amethyst, pink tourmaline, and swarovski crystal. For the rest of the necklace, I hand linked various beads of which I will list the ingredients. If you have a specific question about which is what, please don't hesitate to convo me. Mystic whiskey topaz, beer quartz, mystic pink topaz, swarovski crystal, peacock freshwater pearl, rainbow quartz, and sterling silver. The bird itself is 3.5" wide and 2" tall at it's tallest. The necklace is 19.5" around with an additional 2.5" extender chain. All of the silver is fine or sterling and was oxidized and surface polished upon completion of the piece to bring out the colors of the stones and the detail of the wire wrapping..

Pattern or design used: My own design - Paradise or Bust