The latest reader's challenge given by Objects And Elements threw me into a tail spin. The theme: Show us your Summer Color. How do you incorporate turquoise, lime green, hot pink and luscious popsicle-cool color into your handmade jewelry pieces? I knew I had to use some of the gorgeous recycled silk sari ribbon offered in their shop. It is quite alluring and easy to incorporate into my designs.
"Flying South" .....was born out of an etched copper pendant I designed. I added dimension using one of my etched scissortails; along with Susan's long nuts & screws and copper tubing, which I oxidized.
Yes, scissortails. You may call yours a swallow. They are scissortails to me, as this bird was always present in my childhood. I remember them so vividly sitting on top of the high wires in the part of Texas I call home.
I used platinum with orient nugget freshwater pearls. Here you will see more O&E pieces. See the tiny nuts and screws below the pearls? These were generously included in the class supplies given to us by Susan in a class I took with her earlier this year in Santa Fe. But, if you visit her shop, you will find all kinds of objects and elements, just like these!The bronze bezel was definitely a fun piece to use as my nest. I took more of the silk, winding it up and lovingly filled the bezel, just as a mother bird would do making her own nest.
How many times have you seen a bird's nest with fiber woven thru it? Mother birds are quite the engineers. They do as we do, use what they have and don't waste a single thread!
Do you remember the vintage mother of pearl buttons I found at Uncommon Objects? I used one here as the toggle for my silk loop. It matched perfectly with the pearls. 
Now fly away and make your own summer color pieces...........before the end of summer catches you!
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