Jewelry Challenge Challenges Laura McHugh West

"I ended up really enjoying this challenge, but boy, it was super hard for me." said Laura McHugh West about Laura McHugh East's art challenge this week, which was to make a piece of flower-inspired jewelry.

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I do mixed media, but not jewelry. I don't have any of the materials, tools or skills for jewelry-making. So instead of going out and buying materials, I decided to use what I have and make it in my own style.

I started by punching and cutting out the items to make a necklace with some flower-shaped paper baubles. I used tissue paper for the rope and a two-sided print of some art I did on Friday for the baubles.

Here are the baubles with holes punched in them so I can string them onto the rope.
 

Here I am stringing them using a delicate 1/4" wide ribbon. I put some tape around the end of the ribbon to make it easier to wind into the rope and baubles.

I thought some buttons on each bauble would be nice to finish them off. Also the button added some weight to the necklace. Since it is made of paper, the necklace is quite ephemeral. 
 

Here are the buttons I chose. Small and delicate colors.
 

I used a hot glue gun to attach a button to each bauble.

I'm surprised that it turned out as cute as it did. It won't hold up for years and years, unless the owner is extremely careful with it. It may be jewelry best displayed on the budoir dresser.