The Tree of Life Necklace - Homage To The Master Painter Klimt

There are several painting on the planet that I will never tire of.

The Kiss is in the top three and it was painted by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt.  

I also love many of his other paintings including "The Tree of Life."

Earlier this year I read an accounting of what happened to the the artist Klimt and his family during WWII and was very sad.  Many of his paintings were stolen by Hitler's army and after decades of lawsuits are just now being returned to their rightful owners.

I saw many of these painting in person on a trip to Austria.  I was so lucky to have seen them.  It was overwhelming to stand in front of them.  Then you can really see the gold Klimt used and his masterful use of paint.

A few years later, the Museum in Ottawa had a Klimt retrospective and I saw them a second time.

The Austrian government is having to return most of these painting, so I do not know when another large collection of these painting will ever appear together in public.

I want you to know that this necklace began as a greeting card  This is one of the best reproductions I have found of "The Tree of Life."  I knew that I needed to turn this card into something more substantial and wanted to have a lasting memento.

The vintage components you see here I bought at the Bead and Button show in A Grain of Sand's booth.  I felt that they deserved to be a part of a new necklace.

Here is how I cut up the greeting card.  I didn't want to waste any of it so the more I cut the more bezels I created.  

1.  This is the back of the greeting card.  It is the one image I did not use and it will be placed into another large bezel at a later date.

2.  The couple in the painting are located in the big vintage component.

3.  Some of my bezels are clearly new.  The combination of new and old makes this necklace look so interesting.

I did no extra embellishing.

I simply poured Jewelry Resin into each bezel cavity.

The flat components I handled differently.  

With a paint brush, I glazed resin across the paper surface.  They are sealed in resin now.

Building the necklace took longer than created the bezels!

It took me a long time to sort out where everything would go.

I am over the moon with the finished design.

Thinking about Klimt today.

As you may or may not know, I do not sell my jewelry.  I only make things for myself.  If you were to sell something like this you would need to review copyright status.