Order Up for Robo Cop

One of the things I really enjoy doing, is giving jewelry gifts to family and friends.  It’s just another way for me to get my pieces seen by people I normally wouldn’t come in contact with.  My neighbor recently had a birthday, and because he and his wife have been pretty good friends, I decided to make him a necklace.  Men’s jewelry is something I don’t typically dabble in because I just don’t have a good feel for what men are looking for in handmade pieces. Like women, they all differ I’m sure, but I’ve just always been concerned about the finished piece not looking “man” enough.  Since this was being made for a police officer, I knew it had to rank at the top of the masculinity chart.

When I originally set down to design his necklace, I felt I couldn’t go wrong in choosing wood, but I wanted to incorporate some stone and possibly some silver to give it a more polished look.  I choose some black and white carved wooden beads for accents, some wood beads and some Picasso jasper rounds.  For the pendant, I chose a shark’s tooth that I had purchased a while back, figuring that would really give it a masculine feel.  Well, first attempt was just what I was afraid of…they didn’t care for the round Picasso beads. His wife said they looked a little feminine. They suggested just using the small wood beads alone all the way around with the pendant.

So, I headed back home to re-work the design, but I was drawing a blank.  I can typically make anything the customers is looking for, but as a designer, I have to be able to decide if their request needs to be fine tuned, especially if it’s going to have my business name attached to it. This was a request that needed to be fine tuned, but it just wasn’t coming to me right away. I’d have to look at it for weeks, before I finally settled on a completed piece.

When I sat down again to work on this piece, I remembered something my neighbor had said.  He mentioned that he liked the tooth, as it resembled a cross and he would wear it when he was running or participating in races.  This gave me the idea I had been waiting on for my finished piece.  After looking up properties for stones and going again through my bead stash looking for that “manly” touch, I completed the below piece.

I included Jade to give him luck during his races and the sharks tooth would represent strength and masculinity. The jade really popped with the black wood beads, I also kept the carved beads for interest and I was pleased with the final results, but it was time to head back over for the masculinity test.  We PASSED, and he really liked the jade and overall meaning behind the design.  He’s a big wresting fan and apparently the green reminded him of Degeneration X a professional tag team…who knew??

Now I can’t promise you that I’ll be doing more male pieces in the future without it being a custom order, but it was another challenge that was met with success this time around.  I’d love to hear about your recent design challenges and how you overcame any obstacles or reworks along the way.

Find more of Dee’s jewelry creations on her website at www.runakojewelry.com, also follow the day and life of Runako Designs and other great things with a cause on her blog at www.runakodesigns.blogspot.com.