Spring Cleaning: Stash Blasting

A few weeks ago, I told Rhonda, a fellow blogger and member of the Haute Couture Club of Chicago about how I'd been spring cleaning and trying to find purpose for the beautiful filigree I'd rediscovered.  She was VERY interested in what would come of it.  Rhonda has purchased some jewelry pieces from me before and she's always inquisitive about anything new that I might be doing.  Actually, come to think of it, Rhonda's always curious about anything clothing or fashion related that ANYONE'S doing.

We both needed to join this organization years ago.

WELL.  At any rate, habitual collecting and accessorizing aside, I did promise her that I'd get into making things from my fancy filigree as soon as possible.  Thus, we have this darling. 

FEAST YOUR EYES!

I made this pendant YEARS ago, back when I first discovered the joys of E-6000 glue.  That was...wow, 4 years ago.  Around the last time I attended an anime conventions.  Ugh... Scandalous. 

At that time, I had fallen in love with Visual Kei (Think Hair Metal- except with men in drag... for some reason) and Harajuku fashion trends.  They were so new and different and often included cutesy accessories that look like cakes.  I tried emulating some of their elements in my art and jewelry design with varying success.

Oh how lovely.

 This pendant/brooch/thing was one of the successes.  I'd purchased most of the components online in an eBay auction for broken estate jewelry.  There were some GORGEOUS pieces in that auction.  Most of them, after repairs or repurposing went to my mother or sold immediately.  This one was a bit harder to place.

Check those details.  Mm.  So sexy.

I was at a loss as to what to do with it.  It seemed too pretty to attach to a brooch finding.  That would have been the easy way out, you know?  At the time my stash consisted of Czech glass beads of varying quality and even then I recognized that against this level of intricacy and quality, whatever design I came up with would be a flavorless imitation of 'style'.  So, I held on to it for FOUR YEARS.

Now, I did find something to do with it and it turned out much more brilliant than I imagined.  I will show it to you...in my next post.  Check back on Wednesday for the finished design.