Project of my dreams

Have I ever told you how I got started making jewelry and why I chose wire crochet to start with? I know I told the story on other blogs, but I'm not sure if I ever did it here.
The Jewelry Artisans Community blog carnival is a good opportunity to do it.
It started with a report on TV about Etsy. I had never heard of it before and went to check it out, just some light browsing. Pretty soon I stumbled upon a wire crochet pendant. To be frank, I don't remember what it looked like or what the shop was called. It was not so much the piece itself, but the fascination that you could crochet with wire.

Until then I had only had a very short phase of "making jewelry" which meant stringing a few necklaces and a few bracelets. Nothing very exciting. (I'm not saying that stringing can't be exciting, but mine definitely wasn't). I had given it up quickly because it couldn't hold my interest and because it was not the style of jewelry that I wanted to wear.
Now, however, I found myself coming back to that pendant again and again, and I started wondering if this could be a creative outlet for me. Had you been my crafts teacher in elementary school, you would have laughed at me.

Let's say that crocheting was not my thing. Knitting went a little better, but crocheting, thank you, but no. Actually I abandoned all of that as soon as I was out of elementary school. From fifth grade on the course was not obligatory anymore, and I got official permission from home to escape from that personal hell.
Although I never picked up the crochet hook again, I did my share of knitting, mostly sweaters, but even my yarn stash had been sleeping for years when I stumbled upon that pendant that kept haunting me.

I don't know what would have happened if the shop owner hadn't added a book title to the description.
Arline M. Fisch: Crocheted wire jewelry.
Before I knew what I was doing, I had ordered it. I have learned a few things from this book, about wire gauges, about the different sizes of crochet hooks (I had never been aware that there were no international standards for that), but I never even tried making one project from it. You know I'm still bad at working from tutorials. I took my 1.75 mm crochet hook which I hadn't even known I owned anymore, got some copper wire and started experimenting.
I did like to look at the photos, though. Photos of pieces made by international designers. And once again one piece fascinated me most, an Elizabethan gown crocheted from wire by Jesse Mathes.

I'm not saying that I want to make a gown as the project of my dreams now, but somehow this gown has always been in the back of my head as an inspiration or as a reminder. It doesn't matter what technique I apply, wire crochet, wire knit, or bead looming.
Actually I don't have just one dream project. There are several. A favorite painting in beads, a big branch full of Chinese lanterns, a huge wall of bead loomed portraits, a big kraken, a Christmas tree (with spike baubles? ;-)), just to name a few.
So why haven't you started on one of them yet, you may ask (except the fan wall)? Well, you know, maybe I have experimenting for them ....
I wish I had done that earlier, though. Lately I have found that I'm not able to spend a few hours with my crochet hook anymore without regretting it for some days. There are times when my thumb is not a happy camper at all and isn't even that fond of bead looming. I won't give up dreaming, though. I will think of an Elizabethan gown, of my experiments and how much fun I have with them. And who knows, maybe some day I'll have more to show you than this little selection.

You want to know what stories the other JAC members have to tell? Have a look here :-)

Violetmoon's Corner 
Echoes of Ela
Jewelry Art by Dawn