Collaborative necklace project for charity

One of my long-time online friends, Cyndi Lavin of Mazel Tov! Jewelry and Wildest Dreams Designs, asked me and a small group of other women artists to participate in a collaborative effort to make a charm that would be included on a treasure necklace. Although there are several other projects like this around the country, we believe that ours is the first "traveling necklace" project.

I assured Cyndi that I am NOT a jewelrymaker, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. She believed I could actually pull it off. :-) The theme of the necklace was "Ocean" and we all brainstormed, all by a specially formed e-mail group, about colors, materials, etc. I scrambled around, found a semi-transparent purplish blue stone I had in my stash, some silver wire, and made a free-form charm wrapping the wire around the stone. I was pleasantly surprised at how mine came out.

We each made a charm, sent it to Cyndi, and she assembled them all into a stunning creation, adding little bits and pieces here and there to tie all the individual styles together. It was like magic how the necklace came together.

My charm is the purple one wrapped in silver wire immediately to the left of the larger center focal charm.
The focal charm was made by Amy Fraser, an artist/jewelrymaker in New Hampshire.

We brainstormed about dates, special occasions for which we could wear the necklace, and we came up with a list of birthdays, special events, anniversaries and even a concrete convention!

Once the necklace was assembled, Cyndi got to wear it first. Read about her experience with the necklace on her blog.

Then the necklace was sent on its way. So far, it's been in Massachusetts, California, and is on its way to another member who lives in Washington. After that, it comes here to Texas where I can wear it for Rudy's and my seventeenth anniversary. After that, it goes to another artist, then another, etc. etc. We are all making sure that we get photos of us wearing the necklace, and individually are blogging about it, talking it up, etc. etc. We were excited to hear that national magazines are interested in the story.

At the end, it goes back to Cyndi, where she will put it up for auction. As a group, we also brainstormed about charities, who should get the money from the sale of the necklace. Before long, we decided that the proceeds from the necklace should go to the Susan Koman Breast Cancer Foundation.

Stay tuned for photos and news about the upcoming auction!!

I can't wait to see the necklace when it gets here, and will be honored to wear it.

Bobbi C.