Wedding jewellery cont.....

Nearly 45 years ago my mother and father in law got married. At their wedding were their respective mums Ruby and Ivy.
As readers of my blog will know on the last Saturday of July my sister in law got married. Unfortunately neither Ruby or Ivy are still with us so were not there to see her married. However these ladies were very special to her and she wanted them somehow included in her wedding even if it was in small way.

One day whilst having a tiara discussion, my SIL mentioned this to me and muggins here who cannot keep her mouth shut, ever, said "Well you could make Ivy leaves from silver clay".
Now please don't get me wrong PMC is a fab product and there are some very talented people out there who get fab results from it. I, however, am not overly comfortable using it.
I had a lesson a while back with the very talented Janet Richardson and made a few pieces but I am never quite happy with my efforts, this was my first and only PMC experience. I find it hard to make my PMC efforts look handmade rather than homemade in my mind if you get what I mean. Maybe it is because I am used to working with silver and filing silver is a little different than filing unfired clay. Unfired clay just seems potentially really brittle. or maybe it is because I have a slight perfectionist streak. Anyway the short of it is, that it is not my medium of choice.

Despite of all that about 5 weeks ago I found myself making oodles of silver clay ivy leaves. One for the bride as a keepsake (she wore a pearl necklace I wore at my wedding which my mum in law gave me - old, borrowed and blue (it has a blue clasp) all in one). Three for the bridesmaids and one each for my SIL's mum and mum in law to be as keepsakes.
Then I remembered that a year or so ago I bought some rough cut rubies and had never used them, they were just sitting in my bead stash. Well, it must of been fate. I thought these would look fantastic dangling charm like from the jump ring (which btw I soldered as I have a big dislike for open jump ring) of and I added a freshwater pearl to tie in with the rest of the wedding jewellery, the brides dress and to add a nice contrast to the rubies.

So, here is the final product. Fine silver ivy leaf pendants with handwired charms of two roughcut rubies and a pearl. I am rather pleased with the end result even if I say so myself.

Oh and because I had clay left and I thought it would make a nice set I also made my sister in law some ivy leaf earrings.

So, Ivy and Ruby may not of been physically at the wedding, but they were part of it for my sister in law and were remembered on the day.