What do circles, squares, triangles, and lines have to do with jewelry?  In this case, they are part of the geometry theme for the March jewelry design challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design (SRAJD) blog

I participated in the SRAJD challenge for the first time. I didn’t join SRAJD soon enough, or get my act together quickly enough, to come up with designs for each week’s shape, but I did complete a few geometry themed-necklaces for submission in general. Here are the three necklaces I completed for the challenge.

For some reason, this theme put me in a monochromatic metal mood. The first design I came up with was inspired by a funky antiqued brass-finish owl pendant I had in my stash. True confession: I watch animated movies, and I don’t care who knows it. The pendant made me think of Archimedes the Owl, from The Sword in the Stone.  The owl was named for Archimedes the Greek mathematician. So the word association game in my head went: owl – Archimedes – mathematician – geometry – necklace.

I had a few brass finish circle and square bead frames in my stash. In my monochromatic mood, I decided to put clear glass beads in the frames. The beads have an aurora borealis finish that sets off the brass nicely. And the stacked ellipsoid beads in the square frames? Don’t they look a bit like part of an abacus? (Those are what we used to do calculations before the advent of smart phones.)

“Wise Brass Owl” geometric necklace design.

The next design idea was inspired by a strand of mirror-finished faceted-glass triangle-shaped beads. (Say that three times fast.) I was stumped for a while on what to do with them, which is why I missed the deadline to submit them for triangle-week. Eventually I decided to try something I’d not done before: put the clasp in front. It’s a challenge, so I gave myself permission to try new things.

Still feeling monochromatic, I pulled the triangles together with some gunmetal finish wire, chain, jump rings, and the front-and-center toggle-style clasp. I added some round iridescent vitrail-finish Czech glass beads for accent. If you look closely, you can probably see the photographer’s reflection in the beads. (please don’t – my hair was a mess that day)

Gunmetal and glass geometric necklace design.

As the month was drawing to a close and time was running out, my muse finally got in a more colorful mood. The inspiration for the last piece was a turquoise dyed howlite triangle focal. I am quite fond of turquoise paired with red. Throw some black in there and I’m practically giddy.

This necklace nearly didn’t get completed in time because I was stumped for how to attach the focal. I didn’t want to wire wrap it. Having already done two wired designs for the theme, I wanted to stick with stringing beads. After I decided to use a seed-beaded lark’s head knot as my method of attachment, I spent nearly an hour trying to get the beads to cooperate. Once it all came together, with some coordinating earrings, it was worth the trouble.

Geometric necklace and earring set with a modern southwestern twist.

I also experimented with a new photo prop:  a piece of jute fabric. I am not especially fond of my stark white backdrops and am ever on the lookout for something neutral to showcase my designs. What do you think of the jute?

While I am on pins and needles waiting for the judging by the SRAJD blog admins, I will work on getting these necklaces into my Etsy shop. Maybe. If I don’t decide to keep them all for myself. Stay tuned here and follow me on Facebook (or find me on Google+ if you prefer) to see what happens with the contest and for the latest on new designs from and challenges for Paisley Lizard.