The one-hour necklace.

So, I had a dinner to go to on Thursday night. I'd never been to the restaurant and had no idea how nice it was, so I decided to play it safe and wear a pretty skirt and a nice top. I had this gorgeous burn-away velvet skirt that I'd never worn, which is black with silver and blue flowers and leaves on it. Since I'd never worn it, I'd also never made jewelry to go with it, and it didn't go with any of the blue jewelry I already had. I'd made the what-to-wear decision just an hour before I needed to leave, so I needed a necklace fast.

As it turns out, there's not a single blue bead in my collection which would match either of the two shades in the skirt. Luckily, I had lots of nice black and silver-grey and clear beads to choose from. I opted for some vintage faceted lustrous clear beads, some black Swarovski pearls, my favorite little black vintage flowers, and some pretty grey dime-shaped beads... plus a PMC-coated leaf that my friend Deborah at Bead Indulgences sent me.

I could have done a simple strung necklace, but I felt like doing something different. I'd seen this style of pendant before, and I decided it was definitely something I could do in an hour and have look all cute and trendy with my little black blouse. A few wrapped loops and a couple of jumprings later and ta da, it's a necklace! It didn't even take quite an hour, and that includes finding the beads I wanted to use, polishing the leaf, and trying it on two different pre-made chains to get just the right length to go with the blouse.

I think that the monochrome palette makes it modern and understated, whereas the leaf and flowers still pay homage to my love of nature. I expect to get a lot of wear out of this one!