Week One- Talisman

Yipee!
It is that time of year!!!
Brand new year, brand new blog, brand new projects!
This is my page for the Year of Jewelry Project... if you aren't familiar, it is a challenge to create a piece of jewelry each week for a year, which sounds easy, but there are times that I don't walk into my workroom for a whole week... soooo... to be perfectly honest, I was afraid to commit to the project last year, thinking that I just wouldn't be up to the challenge. I just jumped in this year. I will either sink or swim!

Week one challenge was to make a 'Talisman' to set the tone of the challenge. Something to give you inspiration, to get you creating. I picked a piece of bead embroidery that just popped into my head. I had Jasper and pearls from a challenge in December that needed to be used for something, so I used the remaining stones along with the left over pearls to make this  piece. I think it looks kind of Art Deco, and I guess that is what I had in the back of my mind.
The beads are a mixture of glass, from flat to 15/0 seeds and just about everything in between. The pearls are freshwater, natural, cultured, and crystal. I like the way they kind of set each other off and really made a nice contrast to each other.
I made a lot of mistakes on the piece, I didn't even sketch it out so I did ok I guess. But the challenge to myself is to make something different each week, to challenge myself to learn something new or try something new each week.
So here goes!