Do you make jewelry for Thanksgiving?
I don't normally, but thought it would be a fun personal challenge. I had bought these pure bronze wishbone charms from Nina Designs a few months ago. They're absolutely stunning. I know they use bronze from Italy and the result looks like pure gold.
The beautiful color proved challenging, since I don't usually use gold in my work. But I knew from my last Bead Soup experience that gold makes a nice contrast to a darker metal, so I chose the niobium (hypoallergenic) ear wires instead of matching gold ones. The champagne Swarovski crystal seemed like a nice match—subtle, but pretty.
Then I got stuck. The earrings were okay, but they just seemed a little blah.
So I started thinking about wishbones. Why was I drawn to them? Then I remembered that when I was a kid, my mother would save the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey so that two people could tug at it. (I always tried to be one of the two people!) The idea is that whoever wound up with the larger piece of the wishbone after the tug of war would get his or her wish.
That memory inspired me. I added one copper Swarovski crystal dangle to just one of the wishbone earrings, symbolizing how only one side can get his or her wish. Perfect!
This design experience was a great reminder that you don't always need a complicated design to make something extra special. Sometimes you just need a good story!