Pineapple, Lemon...Sweet, Tangy

It's the last Friday of July!  That means it's time to show off some Artisan Clay!

This month's piece was a challenge for me.  When Kristie gave the team options to pick from I immediately wanted the yellow donut...it made me think of summer:  sweet, tangy citrus lemonade yellow.  I can picture a frosty glass with that pale tart and sugary goodness right now and it just makes me feel happy and refreshed.  Well, I got my wish and had a lovely big donut with pretty, crackling yellow glass "floating" within its ridges.  I immediately went to my yellow bead drawers and pulled out the lemon quartz and pineapple chalcedony...it seemed like the natural flow.  I actually have a lot of different shapes and sizes and tones of yellow stones so it became harder and harder to choose as all the options came out.  I kept laying out more and more choices in the monochromatic yellow theme.  Then, suddenly, I saw a pink and yellow art bead on the table and started moving down that path with two-color ideas and ended up with pink leather, sari ribbon and all a whole new set of beads added to the mix.  I have to admit that I got a little bit overwhelmed and had trouble keeping the focus on the Artisan Clay piece that's supposed to be the star.  My editor had apparently gone to lunch so I just had to walk away from the table.

I eventually made it back to work (along with my editor) and decided to put away the pink and go with my initial instinct and keep it simply yellow.  I pulled out some thin brass chain and went to work making a longer necklace design so the donut would be a focal pendant hanging a little lower.  Why long this time?  I shop at Chico's and am a fan of their styling in the store so I'm loving the look of a long necklace combined with a scarf.  It seems like a kind of modern twist on the scarf & brooch combination so that's the direction I took.  It's hard to take a good picture of the length but you can see all that chain...

Of note, you'll see that the original chain bail idea that I had earlier in the week was replaced by a piece of sari ribbon.  I did a little wear test on the long chain and the swinging around of the chain on more chain on earthen clay was not a really pleasant sensation.  I had to remove some of the movement so there wasn't any grating between rough surfaces.  To go back to the lemonade analogy, it's like when you're drinking the fresh carnival kind of lemonade through a straw and you suck in a big mouthful of sugar from the bottom of the cup.  :)   I like the addition of the ribbon, though, both for softness and for the better wear-feel.  

I used some more of my lemon and pineapple stones to put together some dramatic earrings with big faceted pieces and then twisted up a quick bangle.  That's actually a plain brass Chico's bangle that I got on a super clearance sale that I wrapped with some wire, ribbon, and chain to add a simple accent that highlights the summer yellow stones perfectly.

And that's the end of my story!  I got up bright and early this morning to post this because, of course, I waited until the last minute.  I actually had to take the photos with my iPhone because my "real" camera is at the office.  I'm kind of impressed with how they came out!  

Thanks, Kristie!