I have missed a couple of weeks from my Art Vessel challenge. Firstly I lost momentum with the vessel I was working on, then I was inspired by the British summer weather to knit a cardigan so I was working on that in the evenings instead of polymer clay. Then because I wasn’t working on polymer clay projects in the evening, or planning them in the day, I noticed there was a terrible backlog of housework to do, so I have spent all my time and energy working on that.
However this week I was inspired by my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary to create an assemblage that includes a polymer clay vessel. It is in shades of pink and red as it’s their Ruby Anniversary.
Ruby Assemblage by Cate van Alphen
I used 4 vintage crystals (possibly from a chandelier) for each decade together with a scattering of old foil beads, and a few modern ones. I also had a few textured cube beads that I had made from polymer clay that were waiting for a purpose.
I chose the stick which I pruned from my honeysuckle for its shape, but it turns out that in the language of flowers honeysuckle represents “the bond of love”, so that fitted in perfectly. It’s a little weathered too, but 40 years will do that. 😉
The vessel in the assemblage is a little scroll case where I added a short message with good wishes. The kanji charm has the symbol for friend as I believe that is an important element of marriage. I attached it using two gold coloured wire jump rings to represent wedding bands.
It looks good in a window, but I didn’t manage to capture it that well in a photograph.
Fulgorine 
This is absolutely beautiful! I love the sentiments for the placing of each object – and the LOVE it glows with. It’s very moving in every way I think. Perfect balance on a curve.