It is official! It is Spring time!
Lush green grass, blue sky, sunshine (orange quartz stone), dragonfly... all in a fresh necklace to brighten any outfit and mood!

Music, a melody, can inspire to create. Lyrics, harmonies are not images we see but they stir emotions and memories that are certainly vivid enough to create inspirational images in our mind.
My fellow Malian Salif Keita's Moussolou video revived memories of my father's village: Salif sitting in the shadow of a mud house playing his guitar just like my oncle used to play his kora (a West African musical instrument shaped like a lute, with 21 strings passing over a high bridge, and played like a harp), women in their boubous (long, colourful, loose-fitting garment) tirelessly pounding the cereals like my aunts... evoked so many happy holidays.
As I listened to the music, watched over and over the video, took in the colors, I thought of a necklace.
I used the netting technique often used in traditional south african beading.

Here is my necklace Muso -woman in bambara, the dialect spoken in Mali.
The black color is for Africa, the brown represents earth; vibrant red, blue and green are perfect to inject joyousness and enhance the beauty of the wearer, gold is for the sun...

I loved the colors of the beads used in the Ibeji couple above. They inspired my choice of colors: muted primary colors with an earthy feel.

Below, a picture of Akwaba dolls. These are ritual wooden fertility dools from Ghana. I am lucky to own one as my father worked for few years as an Art dealer and gave me one as my 18th birthday present.
The way they inspired me is more subtle: I guess their femininity pushed me to design a shape of necklace that would be flattering around the neck of any woman.

And below is what my african art inspiration gave birth to.
I was pleased with it but it took me a while to actually post a picture of it on Facebook. I felt my friends would not like it. Not that it matters too much; Andy Warhol once said:
“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
Still, my worries were unfounded as many people told me how they loved this piece :)