Header

To enter our monthly Jewelry Design Challenges Click here! To see the current calendar of events for SRAJD Click here!

To join our Facebook Discussion Group Click here! Check out our current SRAJD Gift Guide

Sunday, October 2, 2016

September 2016 Design Challenge Theme: Jewelry Inspired by a Fictional Character

Here are the entries from members of the SRAJD Organization for the theme of:
Make a Piece of Jewelry Inspired by a Fictional Character

Click on any artist's name to see their website and more of the awesome jewelry they've made.
Click on an image to see a larger version of the jewelry.

Michele Dodge of Lava Jewelry
I chose to design an Art Deco-inspired pendant for Ms Lemon on the Poirot TV series. I've been reading Agatha Christie lately, but I didn't want to design something for such a fussy man. Laura Bracken suggested Ms Lemon, and that fit the bill perfectly. I loved the idea of trying to design an Art Deco piece.


Tammy Adams of Paisley Lizard
This necklace was inspired by the Greek Goddess Athena, who was often represented or accompanied by an owl. The cruelty-free feather pendant was hand-sculpted in polymer clay based on images of snowy owl feathers. The pendant hangs on antiqued copper chain with magnesite beaded links.

Wanda Haworth of Wanda Haworth Designs
This hand carved hematite cross (3 inches long) with the hand wired bouquet of flowers featuring red garnets, was designed for Sibylla the king's sister in Kingdom Of Heaven, the hand made and wired necklace portion is 16 inches and has hematite beads, goldstone and rose quartz accents, this would have been perfect for the battle of Jerusalem when she was in the small chapel before the main battle.

Laura Bosch of MultiBeadia
I choose Inara Serra from Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity. I think Joss Whedon is a genius and the women in his shows are strong, funny, intelligent, leaders & fearless even when scared. Most of them don't wear jewelry but Inara does. I approached this as if she were my friend what would I make her and this is it. Glass "galactic" beads (which is fitting for a sci-fi show and vaguely shaped like the ship) with 2mm fire polish spacers, peacock glass rondelles and the large glass pendant. 

Chris Donofrio of Not Just Metal... Jewelry
     This amethyst necklace was made for Diana, twin sister of Apollo, and goddess of the hunt. It was made, not as a period piece, but to honor Diana for saving Amethyst from tragedy. My love of amethysts (my birthstone) made me think of goddesses, and thus, the research into Diana and the maiden Amethyst.
(The following story is partially copied and paraphrased fromhttp://shinjyujewelry.com/id32.html)
     In Roman mythology, Bacchus, the god of agriculture and wine, wanted Diana, but she wanted nothing to do with him. He was very about her refusal, so he decided to drink the wine of his grapes, until he was very, very drunk, and extremely angry.
     Bacchus devised a cunning plan; he commanded his fierce tigers to devour the first maiden who came along. That would show the chaste and cold Diana!
     Just then, along came the lovely, innocent maiden, Amethyst. Bacchus released his snarling tigers at her. As they lunged at Amethyst, she had only a moment to plead to Diana for mercy and protection from the tigers.
     Diana used her skills to change Amethyst into a pure, clear crystal just as the tigers were leaping. When they chomped down on the crystal, they undoubtedly lost a fang or two!
     Bacchus immediately realized the stupidity of his rage. After all, it was Diana, not Amethyst, who had refused his drunken advances. He knew then that the innocent Amethyst had nothing to do with the bruising of his ego!
     Bacchus approached Amethyst, and begged for forgiveness for such a rash and awful act, and poured all the remaining wine he had onto the clear crystal.
     Thus, it was that Amethyst had been transformed from a beautiful maiden to the most remarkable of clear crystals, and yet again into the beautiful purplish gemstone that we know and love as the gemstone Amethyst.  

Maria Renata of Dreams of Gems
     My design's choice for this month's challenge is for Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix One. She is one of the characters in Star Trek: Voyager series (first aired in 1995). Her first appearance in on seasons 3.
     Seven of Nine is a member of a Borg collective, a hostile alien drone race that destroys civilizations of other planets and then "assimilate" the people into drones. They refer to themselves as "the collective", because all drones are connected through a main computer matrix called "the hive" and they all acted as one and their minds are interconnected. Seven Of Nine was captured by the Earth's star ship Voyager and was disconnected from the collective and then "reintegrated" into humanity by the help of Voyager's captain, Janeway.
     Seven Of Nine is a very unique human individual. She was captured by the Borg when she was 8 years old and was freed from the collective when she was 24. So she has spent most of her adolescence life inside the collective. So humanity is not known to her, she considers humans as "inefficient". Later after she was freed from the collective, she learned about humanity through Captain Janeway's assistance and she is devoted to the captain as well as to the crew of Voyager, in her own way. She is adaptive, strong, smart (because of her knowledge from the collective), but she is also cold, arrogant, hard-headed, and stiff in reacting to human's behavior.
     I chose her character because she reflects the desire of humans to be perfect (drone-like). She chose to keep a part of the Collective with her (her real name was Annika but she chose to keep her Borg designation, Seven Of Nine), and she is not afraid/ashamed to admit that she was once responsible for the destruction of many alien civilizations in space, but she redeemed that by helping out her friends, colleagues, and other alien races. She is superior because of her knowledge, but she tries so hard to be "human" and have made it so far, even though she did not have the desire to embrace the "imperfections" of humanity at first.
     Making her a jewelry was a great challenge and I embraced the challenge just like she tried to embrace humanity that was not known to her. I never made something for an alien before, so I did an extensive research to capture the shapes that I feel would reflect Seven Of Nine's personality. I use Labradorite as the focal and use ParaWire's steel blue wires for this purpose. I chose a bracelet because a necklace feels "inefficient" for her personality.

Karen Nelmes of Karen J Designs
This thistle pendant was made for the fictional character in the books and Television series"The Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon. The Thistle is the perfect symbol for Claire Fraser, while she is not Scottish by blood she fell in love with its people, culture, and country. She is brave, beautiful and has strong convictions.

Laura Bracken of Bracken Designs
I designed and created this necklace inspired by the fictional character named Rowen who was Vortigern's Saxon queen from The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.  I'm currently re-reading (for the fourth time) the entire Mary Stewart "Merlin" books.  While Rowen was not only a minor character in the novel as well as a non-sympathetic character, I felt she was the most likely to wear a piece of my jewelry.  Ha ha ha!  This is a 14k gold-fill Wyvern (two-legged dragon) on a sterling silver background.  His tail encircles a faceted bezel-set Prehnite.

The next monthly theme is designing a piece of jewelry intended to evoke a specific emotion.

If you're an active SRAJD member, click here to submit something you create during the month of September for this design challenge.

And if you like a piece of jewelry you see here, please leave a comment for the artist!  Thanks!