Sunday, February 5, 2012

Necklace - The Elegant Moose

I saw a necklace with a silvertone elk head from an odd fellows badge and wanted one. I have searched the internet for months. That is the beauty of found object art, you can't just find the components anywhere. There was just something about it...

I decided to make my own. I drew an elk, then reduced my drawing, but something just wasn't right. I didn't want to copy the elk exactly, but I liked it exactly as it was. The antlers looked wimpy and for some reason I began thinking about moose. Perhaps because I was thinking about original art, art that is inspired but not copied.


Why would a moose be a totem animal for me? I had seen many animals on our vacation to Yellowstone this past year including elk, but not one single moose. Perhaps the moose had something to tell me.

I looked up moose totem on the internet and this is a summary of what I found:
The crown of courage; Full of contradiction; Excellent depth perception; Strength; Intuitive nature; Reward ourselves for a job well done; Moose
I etched all of these traits on the back of the moose head.

I cut the moose from heavy gauge brass. Next, I etched the image of a moose with the name of the designer in bold letters - RAEvN.

I refashioned a vintage glass bead necklace adding a mother of pearl flower. Hanging below the pendant is a piece of jewelry from my Great Aunt Lena's stash. The shell charms remind me of antler. I also added an acorn shaped button backed by a shell button. The clasp is a hook and eye that I fabricated from brass wire.

The necklace is available in my Etsy shop RAEvNs Nest here.

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