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DISCLAIMER:
Please do NOT be offended if this is your favorite gemstone. This merely MY experience with it.
OHMEGERD - what a CHALLENGE! So, I signed up for this great little challenge called "Gems and Metals" - I would be sent a package of pre-selected, random gemtones and a chosen metal. I was VERY excited. I hadn't done one like this before and had visions of sodalite, amazonite, pietersite and mookaite dancing in my head. Would I get gold, silver...copper? I was SO excited when the package came...I KNEW this was my big moment......I anxiously ripped that envelope open and to my shock and awe - I found...... what the?! What IS that?! I ain't never seen THAT before...what IS it?
RED AVENTURINE - in my eyes - baby food orange.......ew. What the BLEEP am I gonna do with THAT?!!?!?
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| Stone and antique brass metal finding |
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So, after I recomposed myself - I'm not gonna lie....it took a few weeks....I finally pulled out my baby food. In the meantime, I went to a trade show and picked up some fun new beads.... not even considering my red aventurine. It was home and I was HAPPY! As time continued
to pass by, I just kept shaking my head going - what am I gonna do with that?!!?
Time was closing in quickly and while I was putting my new beads away, I came upon my challenge.... and decided that perhaps it was time to pull out the "big guns" - a color wheel. I know - crazy, right!? The color is very red-orange.....and compliments to it include blues, purples and greens. So, at least I had a jumping off point - somewhere to begin.
On a whim, I held up my new aqua quartz and HOLY SCHAMOLY it looked AMAZING!! Ok, I'm on to something here..... so I went through my spacer beads and had 0 that were bright gold (remember the metal I was given was an antique brass color) - so I found some seed beads I had and they were PERFECTION!
I present to you....Piece 1.....*drool*
Piece 2:
Now, I had some of these crazy sticks to use.... if you know me at all - you know that I'm NOT a fan of sticks (ok, not a fan of Red Aventurine + not a fan of Antique brass + NOT a fan of sticks = GREAT challenge!) =) So, I tried to take a fresh look at them. Again, back to the color wheel and back to my greens and blues. I decided to try a new product (to me) and put some very cool electroplated hematite in between them. I used blue/green on top and a bright blue on the bottom. Using the 2 colors gives me more options of things I can wear this piece with. =)
I'm actually surprised at how much I like this piece.... considering all it had going against it. ;) It needed a little jazz , so I went a little crazy with the filigree connections..... it took some time to get it figured out and in the process.... this came out - which I kinda LOVE =) Hot, right?!
But this is how it ended up and frankly - I LOVE this piece.
Red Aventurine? Eh - it's not so bad.... not my favorite but I don't have a vendetta against it.......anymore. ;)
As a side story: A dear friend had come over one day and asked me if I had any new challenge things I was working on....I mentioned my "UGH Red Aventurine" and after talking about it for a while...I ended up showing her my start (which at the time was the first piece with the aqua) and I REALLY loved the way it was shaping up. She nearly brought tears to my eyes when she said that even though it wasn't something that I'd have chosen on my own, I knew how to elevate it and make it gorgeous - really - I about lost it. I was so humbled and thankful for her encouragement. <3 you, girl!
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