This piece was a long time in the making: the ring part of the clasp is marked 2004, along with the name of the maker and the quality (.999). Part of the problem is that I didn't make the matching toggle long enough, and I was afraid just adding more pmc and resintering wouldn't make for a strong enough piece; so I actually braised sterling onto it to lengthen it; hence the two halves of the clasp are marked differently.
soda lime glass, sterling and fine (pmc) silver; strung on 026 beadalon.
I'm not really certain why the complementary scheme gold and purple mix for me—the other two, orange and blue or red and green, are combos I seldom use, possibly because they're so close in value, though that doesn't explain my fondness for the near-complementary schemes of orange and green.
Maybe my problem simply is that I'm not that crazy about the primary colors: amber is more appealing that lemon yellow, in my book. (That's not to say I don't like intense colors, being a fan of lime green and neon orange...) I absolutely love ametrine, quartz which is citrine gold on one end and amethyst purple on the other, though I've never felt I could afford to buy any ametrine beads; so far this necklace is as close as I've gotten to the real thing.
Anyway. The point is that this piece has been sitting awhile, waiting for me to fix the clasp, and the Ann Arbor art fair was the impetus to finally finish this experiment, my first to incorporate pmc. Though I'm quite happy with the piece, I think it's safe to say my pmc bead-making skills have improved somewhat over the past two years.
Would that the same could be said of my photography skills. I'm assuming I'm getting better, but pieces like this—which if the silver is properly exposed, the beads are too dark, and if the beads are right means blown highlites in the metal—make me wonder. I did do some post-processing to improve the beads, but it flattened the pmc focal as a result. Oh well. Someday I'll learn how combine variously exposed shots to get a composite properly exposed image.
file created 22jul06
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
