New Jewelry Themed for AMA's Upcoming Hiroshige Exhibit

I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art. The exhibit will feature colored wood-block prints by Hiroshige, a prominent 19th century Japanese artist. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, December 1, 2018 with a member's reception on Friday, November 30. Unfortunately I might be too worn out to attend the reception after manning my booth at Olde Town Christmas at the Dottie Lynn recreation center that day. Once again I was able to locate some supplies

to help me create jewelry for their gift shop to complement the museum's exhibit. These are small batch, handmade items so if you see something you like you need to grab it before it is gone. I purchased some of the supplies in a very limited quantity.

The necklaces are made from gold or silver plated brass ginko leaf charms. I paired the silver ginko leaf with a sodalite teardrop which reminded me of some blue and white Japanese vases I have seen. I added a silver plated sliding bail to a navy blue silken cord to hang the pendant from. Jade seemed like a natural to pair with the gold plated ginko leaf pendant, which I hung from a gold plated traveling bail on a black silken cord.

Cranes and fans are also popular Japanese motifs. You may recall that I used these fan charms to craft an artistic interpretation of the some of the dresses on display during the film costume exhibit this past summer. This time I used them for what they are, fans, and paired them with jade beads to make fairly large dangle earrings. The hourglass jade beads remind me of sections of bamboo. I made smaller dangle earrings from some crane charms that I recently picked up. I paired them with peacock colored synthetic hematite, rounded bicone beads. Stop by the gift shop to see these and other Japanese themed items when you visit the Hiroshige exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art.