Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Unknown Taxonomy

 Remember when I bought that strand of jade cicadas? I finally created something with one of them! Of course, upon further thought I'm not sure if it's actually a cicada... maybe it's a firefly? Stone insects are so hard to identify!
 Have a closer look yourself. What's your vote for its species?
Here it is in the wild, being worn by me at the drum circle at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. I'm dancing with my friends Jen and Mary! Jen is also wearing a necklace that I made.
But the most exciting part is that this is my first piece as part of the Allegory Gallery Design Team! The two sizes of brown beads that I used in the necklace were provided by Allegory Gallery. They're very nice plastic. I don't normally use plastic at all, but I'm trying to overcome my snobbery. Besides, that stone pendant is SO heavy, it was nice to be able to cut down on the weight of the necklace by using lightweight beads. The plastic has a beautiful marbled appearance that makes it look like glass or stone from the distance; very classy.

In addition to the stone cicada (firefly?) and the plastic beads, I also used some antiqued jade beads to match the focal, some Afghani coins (including one that serves as a "clacker" turning the focal into a bell), a little Thai silver and a little red tiger's eye. I love it!

8 comments:

  1. It looks great! I don't know what bug it is, though. Why am I proving I'm not a robot?

    Marilee

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  2. Love your necklace! I think it is so cool that you turned the pendant into a bell!

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  3. Very Cool design, and the beetle is what sets this all apart! Can not tell what kind of beetle or firefly but even look a little like a scarab? No matter, I love it!

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  4. Marilee, it appears that Blogger has changed their commenting system... and my goodness is the new system ugly. Blurgh.

    Jolene, nice to hear from you again!

    Cindy, that was one reason I had to buy the strand of bugs, they rang really nicely against each other so I figured I could use that in the design.

    Brenda, thank you! It could very well be a beetle, too!

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  5. this is one of my favorite pieces you've made! i think it's just gorgeous. you know i love bugs, too, and this is a beauty!

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  6. Wonderful job AJ, I have never seen a stone bug before. Love your dance pictures too!

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  7. Julie, stick around, there's another bug coming later this week :)

    Penny, this is actually my second stone insect necklace! I made one a few years ago with a green stone bug. Not sure what stone it is or what insect it is, but I like it. LOL.

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