Despite my love of experimenting with unorthodox materials in jewelry, I have a tendency to be very rigid about what colors can go together or how I use certain types of materials. It's more than a little irrational, and it's part of a larger cluster of slightly obsessive brainweasels that I've been battling all my life. It doesn't quite warrant an OCD diagnosis, but my therapist and I keep a close eye on it.

I've been pushing myself hard to break out of old routines lately, and when I saw a post about #The100DayProject on Twitter today, I decided it would be a good excuse to force myself out of my comfort zone a little bit. 

Starting today, I will make a minimum of one piece of jewelry a day that feels jarring to me. It might be how I combine colors, it might be how I combine materials, it might be tolerating mild asymmetry in a pair of earrings instead of fighting to make them match, it might be using beads that I personally dislike aesthetically. I'm going to push myself to try new things, even if I don't like them. I think it will be both interesting and good for me.

I'll post them on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #The100DayProject and #100DaysWyrd, and most of the time I'll put each piece into the store the same day I make it. 

I started by looking through the bowls of beads out on my workspace to see if I could pair up anything that felt uncomfortable to me. I ended up picking these beads, which I wouldn't normally use together for two reasons: I tend not to use colors on opposite sides of the color wheel together, and I usually don't like to mix translucent and opaque beads in earrings.

I have to admit that they go together nicely despite those personal quirks - the blue opaque beads have a hint of pink in the oilslick finish. I'll be interested to see what else I find surprisingly harmonious once I get past my knee-jerk "that doesn't go together" reaction each day.

Are you doing the challenge too? Tell me about what you're doing and what hashtag you're using so I can follow you!