Jewelry Stories from Come Back to Me
Welcome to the last Jewelry Stories post of 2021! I really feel like I have saved one of the best for last, and I hope you’ll agree after seeing these designs inspired by Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund. Before we go a minute further, if you have not read this book, it needs to go to the top of your TBR stack! And what’s more – book 2 is about to release next month so you will not have to wait to continue the story.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ll remember that I asked for your feedback a few months back on what you would like to see for a more modern pearl necklace as mentioned in this story. I had a couple of pendants that I could visualize as being a good fit, but I had no idea what the author had in mind. Since the feedback was pretty evenly split between both pendants and the design styles I was imagining, I decided to include both. One is definitely more vintage/antique in style. The second one has some vintage to it, but I could visualize it as something that may have been handed down as an heirloom. Whatever style Marian may have had in the book, it was evident that it was special to her.
Scroll through the images and excerpts below to see more. As always, there is a link under each image which will take you to a separate page with more details on that particular design. I’ll check back with you at the end of the post with more behind-the-scenes design inspiration. 🙂
. . . but she couldn’t find her pouch of money or her pearl necklace.
“I want you to have these.” Marian pressed their mother’s pearls into Ellen’s hands. Ellen glanced down and then recoiled. “You’ll wear the necklace again.”
“Come back to me, Marian. Come back.” He waited, staring at Marian’s pale face.
So whad’ya think?! This might be the first collection since Jewelry Stories began where there were pearls in every single design, and if you’re like me, that makes you love them all the more. <3
As I mentioned earlier, I kept waffling back and forth between the first pendant and the second one. I knew I wanted to make one with a true pearl strand of beads because that’s what I envisioned for the pearl necklace that Marian inherited from her mother. But no matter how hard I tried to keep it to just one necklace, I had to make them both. For the first necklace, I wanted the pendant to be the focus so I added only a few beads so there would be more than just chain. For the second necklace, I originally planned to have the silver pendant and the pearls by themselves. But after a trip to Hobby Lobby one day, I found beads that looked like waves of blue, and since the series is called “Waters of Time,” it seemed appropriate to include that in this small way.
Last but not least, I could not let those words of William’s be left out. Since I listened to the audio version of the book, I felt like I was physically hearing and watching him utter those words to Marian, and by this point in the book, I was just gone. Their connection with each other was incredible! I tried a few different ideas to see how I could incorporate the words, yet also make it look vintage since Marian was back in his world at the time. I even went to Pinterest for inspiration – y’all, I was desperate! I started seeing some different assemblage type necklaces (if you’ve never looked at those on Pinterest, you’ll be lost for hours). I had also remembered a new technique I had found on Instagram using wood slice pendants and Modge Podge that I had tucked away to try. Somehow, the two ideas came together in this unique, one-of-a-kind necklace. And since I had a couple extra of those sparkly connectors, I had to add some earrings for good measure.
All that’s next is to read book two – Never Leave Me – when it releases on January 4th. Jody has even commented online that she is open to writing a book 3 depending on the feedback she gets from readers on this second book. You know what that means! Write those reviews, share with your friends, ask your local libraries to order it, and of course, share it on social media. All that buzz will hopefully get us an amazing conclusion to the series!
Thanks so much to you for coming along with me this year through so many Jewelry Stories! Next year promises to be even better as I have several to catch up on that never made it to the blog this year. And there are so many new releases that I’m itching to read – who knows what they will inspire?! I can’t wait to find out. 🙂
