I’m sure you’ve heard me mention my friend Ashley who owns Charmed in San Juan Bautista? She’s an amazing jewelry artist and has grown to be an equally amazing friend. In early December I purchased two  copper findings that I thought were unusual. I gave one of the pieces to Ashley and kept one for myself, and we took the month of December to create a piece of jewelry using the piece. It’s an interesting stamping, very detailed and not something either of us would normally pick up to work with.

It’s interesting to see what two different people can create using the same piece. Her style is so girly and feminine, and my style is..well, eclectic? We checked in with each other throughout the month to see how we were doing. Then the holidays hit and shortly after that I was hit by a lovely cold. So, today was the day. I went down to visit and took my creation down to display at her shop next to her creation.

Here’s Ashley’s piece. It’s beautiful! She rarely works with copper, so this was a first for her. I think she did an incredible job!

I love the colors she used! The purple/pink tones really compliment the copper nicely, making the entire piece POP with color. As I said, her style is very feminine and this piece just screams girly to me! I love it! She used the piece nicely with it’s original hole placement. Now, for my piece I drilled a few more holes in to the finding.

I wanted to incorporate a few different types of metal in to my piece, so I pulled out my chain scraps and got started. As I started working, a story developed in my mind. Wanderlust. A traveling woman…she picks up bits and pieces from her favorite locations. A coin from Afghanistan, a Buddha amulet from Thailand, a Milagro from Mexico, a pebble from a far away lake shore…pieces of her journey. The one thing she always kept with her was a transit token from her home town, Indianapolis. Would it work when she returned? Maybe? A bird always knows it’s way home…she kept one of those with her as well.  It all came together in this piece.

So there we have our December Challenge. We’re already starting on January’s Challenge! Check in tomorrow and I’ll show you what we’re working with…..a hint? We found them at an antique store in San Juan Bautista.

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