Chains of Love

I finally got around to making a piece for Art Bead Scene's February Challenge, which is "Chains of Love". The instructions for this month indicated that the chains could be either thematic or literal, so I decided to go the thematic route for my first submission. I wanted to create something simultaneously delicate and Gothic looking. As I hadn't had the luxury of designing with any of the pendants I'd made for Valentine's Day, I decided to use one of my dragon heart pendants as the focal. I had picked up a couple strands of really delicate, needle-like looking black bamboo coral at a trade show a few months ago, and I thought they would work pretty well with the relatively small scale of the pendant. I'm a big sucker for a purple/green color combination anyway, so I thought separating the black bamboo beads with violet and olive colored beads might be interesting. I also tucked in a few pieces of amethyst and garnet for embellishment. I debated using a larger toggle for the clasp, but I wanted to keep things unobtrusive so I opted ultimately for a simple lobster claw clasp. The piece is light and, despite the spikiness of the coral, comfortable to wear. I'm reasonably happy with it, and I'm very happy to have finally had a chance to design with some of the PMC pieces I've been making lately.

On other fronts, the Short One has come down with yet another cold, and this one has been a whopper so far - hacking cough, constant dribbling (leading to a rash on the cheeks) and a subdued toddler who actually went to bed tonight without a complaint, which is always worrying from my perspective (and which I always find ironic, since I usually feel pretty tired by the time the SO has finished indicating to me that he's not feeling sleepy at all and has tons of energy to spare). On top of which, I've managed to catch it from him this time, and am starting to develop my own hacking cough and glazed expression, etc., etc. The weather around here certainly isn't helping. I think it actually reached 10 degrees (F) here today. There's just something wrong when you start thinking of that as unusually warm, in my books...

On that note, I think I'll be unconventional and turn in early. Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow.