Andrew Thornton hosts a monthly book club called Inspired by Reading. He picks books and we read the section and create based on our reading! Although I've been able to read only one book (and it was good) so far, this time Andrew was nice and provided me with a selection from this month's book, "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales", edited by Kate Bernheimer - basically adult fairy tales!
The story I chose was First Day of Snow by Naoko Awa, a Japanese fairy tale that borrows elements from folktales about disappearance. This story is about a girl who finds a mysterious round hopscotch trail and takes it for what seems like miles and miles. She finally sees snow and hears a rhyme; it's the bunny rabbits, appearing as snow to take her away from the world and turn her into a chunk of snow. The only way she can get back is by chanting a rhyme about spring and a mugwort leaf.
My idea for the necklace was a white bunny bead I had from LeAnn Weih (Summers Studio) and a round handmade chain (engagement ring) taken from Cindy Wimmer's new book, The Missing Link. The design calls for dead soft wire, which I did not have. I used 18g copper wire, in a spool, and have no idea where I even got it. It's not even round, it's sort of square. Let me tell you, you need the dead soft wire. The links just do not work right if you don't use dead soft. So while I didn't finish the necklace, I did make 7 links to show you what the idea was!
Here's the link chain I made; I used copper, patinaed it in LOS, and tumbled it for a while.
As I mentioned, the bunny bead is from LeAnn and fits perfectly with the story.
It will dangle from the middle of the chain. I was thinking of adding white beads to the chain, to show the snow. I also wanted to add one large green bead, to show spring.
I'll probably make this necklace eventually! But I did want to show you my process and that this time, I actually got farther in the process!
Please visit Andrew's blog for the complete list of participants and see what funky jewelry they made from these interesting fairy tales!
The story I chose was First Day of Snow by Naoko Awa, a Japanese fairy tale that borrows elements from folktales about disappearance. This story is about a girl who finds a mysterious round hopscotch trail and takes it for what seems like miles and miles. She finally sees snow and hears a rhyme; it's the bunny rabbits, appearing as snow to take her away from the world and turn her into a chunk of snow. The only way she can get back is by chanting a rhyme about spring and a mugwort leaf.
My idea for the necklace was a white bunny bead I had from LeAnn Weih (Summers Studio) and a round handmade chain (engagement ring) taken from Cindy Wimmer's new book, The Missing Link. The design calls for dead soft wire, which I did not have. I used 18g copper wire, in a spool, and have no idea where I even got it. It's not even round, it's sort of square. Let me tell you, you need the dead soft wire. The links just do not work right if you don't use dead soft. So while I didn't finish the necklace, I did make 7 links to show you what the idea was!
Here's the link chain I made; I used copper, patinaed it in LOS, and tumbled it for a while.
As I mentioned, the bunny bead is from LeAnn and fits perfectly with the story.
It will dangle from the middle of the chain. I was thinking of adding white beads to the chain, to show the snow. I also wanted to add one large green bead, to show spring.
I'll probably make this necklace eventually! But I did want to show you my process and that this time, I actually got farther in the process!
Comments
I'm glad you've joined the group!
I can't wait to see what the piece looks like when you finish it! I bet it's amazing. You've selected some really cool elements. The chain looks really interesting and has so much texture and dimension. I see that Cindy's book has really been influential on a lot of the participants' work this month. I will definitely have to check it out!
Thanks again for participating!