Can’t you see that the weather is changing
The dark clouds over my head
About to burst, I’ve seen the worst
Let it pour all day
‘Cause I’m filled with good vibrations
I got that old sensation
We’ll have a rainy day parade

Before the voting was over I had a sudden rush of inspiration for another piece with the green and blue teardrop beads.  It took over a week and I’m quite proud of the result:

Click on the image to see other shots.

I was particularly inspired by the opening verse:

I used to have the world in my handbag
How did I manage to blow it?
I missed the bus, I lost my heart
An an awful lot of mornings

I gave this bracelet to Jill at her release party Tuesday night.  Here she is wearing it:

And then, after all that, I made one more!  A pair of earrings based on Jill’s song “Smoke Dreams”:

The pendant and earings are both available in the marketplace for $20 and $15 respectively. You should also check out Jill’s new CD California Years.  It’s amazing! You can also buy Pink Pearl, my first and favorite Jill album, which includes the song “Rainy Day Parade”.

I picked 5 of my favorite Jill songs and chose ten different types of beads (mostly) at random. First, vote on the songs:

If you’re not familiar with Jill’s fabulous music, click the links. There you’ll be able to listen to part or all of each song.

Now pick the beads. I provided a handy gallery here. Click to see them in more detail. The quality isn’t great, I know :( 

Polls close April 4th at noon. I’ll have the piece up by April 14th, the day the album comes out. (Which you should pre-order, you know.)

I set out to make a pair of earrings. I ended up making two pendants and a bracelet. So it goes. Here you go:

Optimism in the Face of Darkness (Sold!)

Sanguine Spring Pendant

Sanguine Spring Bracelet

I’m definitely going to do more Reader’s Choice polls. It made me consider combinations that I probably wouldn’t have. I think the pieces turned out pretty well!

If you want to buy them, head over to the Marketplace. The pendants are $15 and the bracelet is $10. There’s only one of each, so when they’re sold they’re gone :)

It’s been a really long time since I posted new jewelry! But I have the itch to create again, especially with the second Interfictions auction coming up. So I’m going to work on two earrings or one bracelet this weekend depending on what strikes my fancy.

I also don’t know what beads I’ll use, which brings me to my new fun idea: Reader’s Choice.  Whenever I have an RC challenge, I will give you a list of the beads I have and a choice of themes. Sometimes the theme will be single words, or lines from fiction and poetry, maybe even snippets of music. Then I’ll ask my kind readers to vote on which beads and which theme I should use to create the piece. I’ll abide by whatever has the most votes.

For this Reader’s Choice I pulled out a random selection of beads and used various “Word of the Day” words for the theme. Here’s an image of the beads (click to make it way bigger):

The polls are below. You can choose up to three beads but only one theme.  Polls close Saturday evening!