The Pink Orchid

I have been following the Art Jewelry Elements blog since its debut in mid-April.

It is started by a very talented group of artists...they all create handmade elements to be used in art jewelry. Recently, they started the "Inspired By..." series where they put up a picture every month as inspiration. Today is the reveal day for the first challenge. The participants list is at the end of the original post on the AJE blog: Inspired By...Reveal and Blog Hop

The first inspiration photo is of a very beautiful, vibrant orchid...

I fell in love with the colors, I wanted something that could show the whites around the petals, the darker veins in the middle. And I knew exactly what I could use for it!

I had a few agate slices of this color, each one different from the other...I found the perfect one! It had the exact pink color, and a transparent border that would take on whatever color I set it against, and darker pink coloring in there too.

I made a pendant and let it sit for a few days, not sure what I wanted to do next. I met an old friend for lunch during that time, and among other things, told him about my new shop on Luulla http://sadafulee.luulla.com/). He went home and checked out the site, and liked my work. And asked me if I could make something for his wife. Her birthday is on June 3rd, and he wanted something in agate...her birthstone! And her favorite color was purple. Perfect timing! I had made another necklace with one of these chips and sent him the picture. It's not purple, but he liked the color. So now I had extra motivation to finish this. And knowing who it was going to helped me decide what I wanted to do next.

Here's the necklace.

I had originally planned on using a pink ribbon around it, but I think the chain is better suited for her. The ribbon would have made tooo pink. My friend also wanted earrings to go with it, so here's what I made. Simple...matching, and hopefully not overwhelming along with the necklace!

I have sent him the pictures to make sure he likes the set, so the jury is still out on it. In either case, I love them :-)