Garden Mokume Gane

I’ve been following the Art Bead Scene blog for years and I love their monthly challenges, but I haven’t usually been good about participating.  However, this month I’m starting a new blog, which seemed like the perfect time to get in gear and step up to the plate.  So I busted out my polymer clay gear and started working on the June challenge.  I’m trying to broaden my color palette, and the red & green of the challenge picture seemed like a perfect experiment.

I decided to go with a mokume gane technique, which led to more experimentation with the patterns of the imprint.  For one batch (left) of beads, I used a ripple cutter and pointed tool to mimic a leafy vine.  For the other batch of beads (right), I played around with circles.

While I liked the batch with circle imprints, I felt the batch with the vine imprint was closer to the challenge picture’s colors & spirit and I decided to use that batch for my June ABS jewelry.

With the addition of some green/bronze freshwater pearls and silver-plated findings, I finished my necklace.

I’m really glad I pushed myself to do a color combination outside of my normal comfort zone.  I never would have predicted how much I like the way these colors look together.  All of the challenge entries go on the ABS flickr site, so stop by and check out the other pieces inspired by the monthly challenge.