Yep, pretty sure these flowers aren’t from my garden.
I went “wild” today, choosing some crazy colors and a medusa-like spider mum of sorts. I’m obsessed with flowers especially this time of year! Everything is just busting out of the earth. It makes my heart skip a beat!
This necklace was made with polymer clay and vintage rhinestones from Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. I have amassed a wonderful collection of rhinestones over the years. Like a raven, I am attracted to anything sparkly!
I knew I wanted a necklace full of flowers, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I created each flower with wire built into it for assembling afterwards. I figured out quite quickly, this wasn’t the way to go.
First of all the wire I chose was too rigid, making it hard to connect the flowers to one another. Second, because they flowers were all separate, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be to overlap and get the pieces to fit tightly. They also flopped and tipped forward a bit. Third I made some of the flowers too thin which makes them difficult to hold up to frequent usage, they crumble.
Pretty much, this necklace isn’t very wearable. But, I did learn a lot. I learned exactly what I needed, to be able to create another idea I have. Back in the day, I’d spend a week to 2 weeks Just constantly trying every darn thing I could think of. By the end of that period, I’d have 50-60 finished pieces. Then, I would pick maybe twelve that I loved and figure out the best way to mass produce those twelve.
With the 365, it is different. I can’t create 50 pieces and leave them unfinished and scattered around my studio for two weeks. I have to start and finish something in one day. Where as today I probably knew 3/4 of the way through that it wasn’t going to work, I needed to see it through, otherwise I’d have nothing to show for my days work. It’s a little hard for me to step back and just allow myself to be inefficient. This 365 has its plus and minuses. For the most part they have been pluses, so I’ll let the inefficiency go and focus on the journey…
That being said, the not so functional necklace is finished and looks quite pretty. It just means I have to find a different purpose for it…
Here you see, kitchen art.
I have a lovely wall of pigs in my kitchen and I am always dressing them up. The little piggy won’t move or get the necklace caught on something, snag it or break it. The perfect recipient! And I get to enjoy the wild colors which is all I generally really care about anyhoo!
I’m looking forward to taking what I learned today and trying again.
With a 365, there’s always tomorrow!
Be Creative Mary 
Love!!!