Grandmas Cameo

When I was notified of Artbeads new design challenge, I was thrilled! "What was old, is new again" gave me the perfect reason to bust out my box of Grandmas old jewelry. There were quite a few cameos, but I chose my focal piece because it looks like it is actually carved and not just molded. As I continued to dig through all the goodies in the box I found a pair of old clip on earrings that matched the colors in the cameo. I clipped off the back of the earrings, and decided that they looked best right under the cameo. Here's a picture of the old parts of my necklace, the cameo in the middle and the earrings right under it (with the three little rhinestones in them).

Then I started to browse the Artbeads website. Boy they have TONS of stuff! I decided (after many hours and what seemed like days) that I needed some swarovski rivolis in light peach which beautifully picked up the same colors of the stones in the earrings. Then I decided to order a pair of their cameos which I placed at the clasp.

I'm very satisfied with how the whole piece came out, and I think that it would make Grandma happy too! She was big on re-using items (in particular, wrapping paper and old greeting cards) and if she could see what kind of company her cameo was with now I think she would be impressed!I set out originally thinking I would make it all shades of brown, because the cameo looked like it was a shade of carnelian. After adding the earrings, and deciding to use the light peach rivolis to match, the necklace started to take on a whole new color. I added some swarovski sun margaritas, some peach pearls and seed beads in every color I could think of including copper, gold, and brown. I think adding lots of lighter colors brightened the whole thing up and I cant imagine what it would look like if I had stuck with just brown. It was so much brighter and happier then I think brown would've been!

Here is a shot of the cameos from Artbeads. They came as a set, one of them facing in each direction, which is one of the reasons I decided to put them at the clasp.

What I didn't mention earlier is that I decided I didn't want to ruin the integrity of the cameo pin. So I didn't cut the back off and glue it down to my interfacing, I left the pin intact and pinned it to the interfacing. I cut out little holes for the working parts of the pin so that when it sits on the interfacing the back is all flush. Then when I glued the Ultrasuede to my interfacing, I just left an open space where the pin is that is glue-free so that if I ever decide I want just the cameo again I can just unpin it!

* disclaimer - all products provided by Artbeads are free of charge for my opinion of said products whether good or bad. No compensation was given.