Last week I showed you some polymer clay beads I made using the watercolor or torn paper technique. Today I turned one of the pendants and some of the beads into a necklace.  Both the beads and the necklace were inspired by the same design challenge on Art Bead Scene this month.

As a reminder, here’s the inspiration image, which is a watercolor illustration by Warwick Goble, called Star Lovers.  In the painting, a woman (she’s a goddess) is being carried across a starry night sky by a flock of magpies.

Star Lovers watercolor by Warwick Goble.

When I made the watercolor beads, I was focusing on the overall color palette.  But the entire time I was making them, I was thinking about the magpies.  Should I make some blackbird beads?  A magpie feather, maybe?  I couldn’t stop thinking about those birds.  Which prompted me to remember that I bought some matte black bird charms a year or three ago.  Now, where did I put them?

The magpie is a brass stamping in a matte black finish. I painted white accents and layered it over one of my round watercolor focals.

Luckily, I found the blackbird charms in the second place I looked.  Phew.  I sort of wanted to add some white paint to make the blackbird look more like a magpie.  I deliberated about that for a while. I even put the necklace together with the charm “as is” in solid black.  I didn’t want to risk ruining the charm.  However, I did have a spare, so in the end, I went ahead and painted one.  I’m glad I did. It really makes her stand out more against the watercolor background.

The layered pendant is strung with round watercolor mosaic beads and periwinkle faux glass beads. There are some matte black seed beads to break up the spaces, and the necklace is finished with textured matte black rolo chain.  You can’t see in this photo, but I used some of my Vintaj metal paints to turn the sterling silver crimp covers black so they blend better with the rest of the black findings.

In addition to the polymer clay pendant and beads with the watercolor veneer, I made some faux glass beads in a periwinkle or soft lilac purple.  These faux glass beads are polymer clay with alcohol ink.  I used some matte black seed beads for spacers between the larger polymer clay beads.  The back of the necklace is finished with textured matte black rolo chain and a large lobster clasp.  The one-of-a-kind necklace is available in my etsy shop.