Art of Bartering

My girlfriend Gail makes the most exquisite fabric art pieces- she has been published, and has sold these pieces. Best of all like me she likes to make art to gift both to people she loves but also for causes she believes in. Her areas of artistry are in painted, printed and then manipulated art and she has been generously sharing her time, knowledge and talents with me.

Since I mainly work in jewelry making we have had some fun collaboration.
Much to my delight she bartered a beautiful bag for a necklace of my choice just supplying some seed beads and shells that she had collected to start with the rest was up to me. The following necklace resulted, I especially love the metal shells, starfish and the head pins are art-i-cake.

On the day I was picking up the supplies from her art studio she sent me home with several other pieces. They had started as a hand made stamp, then too linen, then to the computer for manipulation I think I should call it computer hocus pocus because it is magical at the end. I could not decide if I liked the matt or the glossy finish so I went home with both.
I ended up making both into pendants one for me and one for Gail. Much of her art especially her print making has a Japanese aesthetic so the shell coins with the blossoms looked terrific together and I was able to tie in the ivory seed beads from the original project. The colors are ones she tends to favor in clothing as well.

In fact the day I delivered the necklace her skirt and rest of the ensemble had all of the above colors in it and it looked terrific with her outfit.