Crab claws certainly send my heart racing. Check out some of the recent ones my eldest son brought home for me. Incorporating them into unique, art jewellery pieces is quite a passion of mine and I’ve got quite a collection of them now. These two pieces came about as part of an online art exhibition but I just thought I would share a bit of my process.
I started by gathering found objects and polymer components and working them in together to create one cohesive piece. Composition is crucial as many of these elements are large and need to hang well.
I chose a large buna cord as you can see. I think anything too thin and flimsy just wouldn’t have worked with such bold components. How I was going to “clasp” this was also going to be a challenge. A pre-purchased clasp could possibly have worked but how would it attach to the buna cord? I could have used magnets but they would have to be glued on and trusting a glue with these sorts of pieces can be a little tricky.
I decided to create my own very bold looking clasp and attached it to the buna cord with wire. The wire was wrapped around an eyelet which was screwed into the end of the buna cord. A perfect finish I think.
I placed around with creating handmade fish bone beads as spacers on the buna cord. I tried different wired component combinations until I was happy with the final composition.
And the leftover bits and pieces went into another necklace. I think creating very organic looking wire bails for each component added to the “rustic” oceany feel.
I love creating big and bold statement pieces and these two definitely come under that category.
I sure hope enjoyed the little pic journey.
