Art Nouveau Style in Black and White

Dirty confession: I design a candy store of jewelry every season but I only wear . . . black.
I’m Carrie Donovan.
Or Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
Anyway, this design challenge was right up my alley.  I love the instantly exciting black-and-white duo.  I love those crazy kids!  And I love, love, love the dynamic impact of a black and white composition.

Besides the palette, I really enjoyed the Art Nouveau style introduced in this challenge.  The graceful lines and natural elements were fun to carry throughout each piece.  This first piece is similar to a piece I designed for the France issue of my indie mag, Travelogue.  The focal piece is a cool, soldered pendant made with an antique cut glass coin.  The black solder sets of the dazzling clear glass and the effect is incredible.  Find this pendant at The Mod Ant.  I finished off the necklace with color-blocked sections of jasper, hematite, gray crystal and ethnic silver.

These earrings look to emulate the long shapely lines of the wood cut panel margins.  Looking like long vines, I wrapped heavy gauge wire with twisted wire. The effect is a silver eddied tendril climbing the long ebony teardrops from Aloha Gems.  Each one is unique, making these earrings a cool “where did you get those?!” art piece in your jewelry cache.

And finally (not to cheat) I used a straight-up Art Nouveau black and white decoupaged bead from Priscilla Beads.  I added a vintage saint medal and vintage brass flower for Metalliferous.  I grouped them all together for impact and strung them on a vintage rosary chain.  The effect is graceful and – thanks to the black strong black elements – wonderfully edgy, too.