Lorelei threw down the gauntlet to her blog readers to enter her Jade Scott pinwheel challenge and if selected to receive one of the colourful enamelled components, create a piece of jewellery to be shown and shared today. Not to be deterred by the fact that I don't live in the USA, I decided to buy a pinwheel component and keep my fingers crossed that it would arrive on time for me to take part. And if it didn't, I would have a gorgeous new art bead to work with anyway!
available here
First things first, I had to work out what a pinwheel actually was....were they just the American term for windmills? My friend Heidi directed me here. Aha. The penny dropped....we do have these in the UK too, I have just never heard them being called pinwheels. Not sure I would have known what to call them before. But I do now!
First things first, I had to work out what a pinwheel actually was....were they just the American term for windmills? My friend Heidi directed me here. Aha. The penny dropped....we do have these in the UK too, I have just never heard them being called pinwheels. Not sure I would have known what to call them before. But I do now!
I had such a great idea with what to do with the pinwheel as soon as I saw Lorelei's blog post (and I knew I wanted to try and get a red one if possible) but my initial plan did not pan out. The fun thing about these in real life is that they spin....I was sure that I could work out how to link it up to a couple of Vintaj blanks with rivets and jump rings, and get it to spin around on the back one. But no....I tried but I just couldn't get it to lie correctly. It kind of sagged....not such a good look! I still like my idea, and if Jade makes any again, I will buy another and definitely try again.
So that idea got junked. I knew I still wanted to capture the fun, child-like mood that the pinwheel creates, especially (for me), in vibrant red. I recently bought some natural yellow jade rondelles from LimaBeads and thought they would be perfect. But it needed some other colours to create more of a riot and less of a scary 'hazard' colour scheme....so I threw in a little lavender, turquoise, all on a bed of antique copper. I wonder whether I could have thrown in a little peach-y pink too but I left it without.
I wanted to use a mixture of shapes and sizes of beads, some chain, a couple of different knotted strands. Flowers, rondelles, rounds, teardrops, fancy daggers...I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I love how it feels in my hand and the chunky feel it has when worn. It jangles and moves, which is always a good thing for me. It is colourful and is a continuation of the colour challenge I have set myself this year - push the boundaries, don't play it safe anymore. Of course, you could just see it as an extension of my red/aqua obsession, but that's not how it started, honest! I'm a little bit in love with the two turquoise teardrops with that tiny red flower off to one side....you can't see it (red is such a bugger to photograph, don't you find?) but it is very detailed, with the impression of a tiny flower face on it.
Looking forward to seeing what the official challengees have come up with, and anyone else hitching a ride on the star-spangled bandwagon :-) Check these guys out
SABINE
KATE RICHBOURG
CHARLIE of ClaySpace
SHAWNA TOBIAS
LISA CONE
HEIDI of ExPostFacto
HEIDI of ExPostFacto
and of course,
I also recommend perusing Jade Scott's etsy shop. Even if there are no pinwheels right now, I guarantee there will be some gorgeous pretties in there, waiting to hit your cart ;-)
