I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks designing and making this pendant. I have had the idea for a long time and I have to say I am really pleased with the result. It looks exactly like I imagined it would ... which doesn't always happen, believe me!
Anyway .... where did this idea come from?
When my eldest son was a toddler he used to love it when we read, Guess how much I love you by Sam McBratney. It is a lovely story about a little Nutbrown Hare competing with Big Nutbrown Hare over how much they love each other. On one of the pages little Nutbrown Hare opens his/her arms as wide as they will go and says "I love you this much" so big Nutbrown Hare opens his/her arms wider and says "I love you this much". Little Nutbrown Hare replies with "hmm that is a lot" and so the story continues until little Nutbrown Hare says "I love you right up to the Moon!" and Big Nutbrown Hare says "AND BACK!".
So, one day I was reading this to my son and (typical of him) he says very smugly "Well, I love YOU to Pluto!". You can guess what my answer was .... "Hmm that is a long way ... I love you to Pluto and BACK!" This has always been our special joke and now he is growing up (too quickly), I wanted to capture that memory in a piece of jewellery.
I have tried before ... Last Christmas my husband bought me some Precious Metal Clay and I decided I would use the clay to make three silver charms that would remind me of my three children. I started with this idea and made a silver pendant in the shape of a heart with "to Pluto" written on it.
Whilst I enjoyed making it, there was something missing. It was far too plain and didn't represent all the fun and giggles we had with the story. So, I put the idea to the back of my mind until a couple of weeks ago when I was sat doodling on a scrap of paper. Suddenly the idea emerged into this design!
I hadn't thought of using polymer clay before and with a few tweeks to my original design the pendant took shape. I know, just in case there are some planetary boffins out there that Pluto isn't really this colour but I think I can excuse myself and use my artistic licence to change things around a little. I wanted the pendant to be bright, bold and lots of fun!
I definitely think I have captured the memory for my son because when he saw the pendant (and I didn't say anything ...) his face filled up with an enormous beaming smile, he grabbed hold of me and gave me the biggest huggle EVER! There were no words!
I have been asked a few times, how to turn my beads into jewellery. So, in next weeks blog post I will show you (with lots of photos) how I have made this into a necklace ... or a piece of "wearable art" as Chrissie would say.
My youngest son likes the story about Aliens in Underpants! Not sure how I am going to do this one yet!
Ooops nearly forgot ... the earrings to match!
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