Freeform Peyote Collar/Neckpiece

I finished this necklace, finally, at 5:54 PM on Thursday (2 days ago)  - but didn't get a chance to take photos until just now.

Here's a photo of the neckpiece on Bessie Mae, my faithful sidekick mannequin:

I am so incredibly proud of this piece - I just hate that the gorgeous green sections in the back don't show. For that matter, the clasp is so pretty, I wish it was visible, too!

I went through a 3-week or so long period where I wasn't that thrilled with the piece - back before it was connected together, and before the embellishing.

Reminder of how it looked un-embellished:

This is actually the back of the finished necklace, and if you look real hard you'll see a few stray threads showing, because the beads just got so full during the stitching process that they wouldn't accommodate even one more thread pass during the embellishing - but it's the back, and after I cheated that first time and let the Fireline cross over a bead instead of passing through it, it got easier to do it a few more times. It won't show!

The sea of peyote just looks so plain - but I absolutely love the finished, embellished result:

During the embellishing process, I was able to add all the lovely gemstone, pearl, and glass accent beads that I had initially intended to work into the piece as I stitched, but it was too much trouble! I used embroidery techniques to create this deeply textural embellishment, which I envisioned as a series of twisting, turning, vine tendrils, snaking their way across the landscape of the piece.


Some close-ups of the embellished necklace:

 Here is the clasp:

And the clasp on the mannequin:

The necklace is comfortable and fun to wear, and I am pondering what to do with it. I have no where to wear it, and may put it in my Etsy shop. Maybe. Not sure I could actually part with it!


More about the creation of this piece - which was designed and created for my first Head-to-Head Challenge.

Starry Night now on Etsy

I completely forgot about this gorgeous set! Sad ... I need a personal assistant (with a cattle prod, probably) to keep me organized and to keep me on track!

The necklace and earrings are now in my Etsy shop!

I'm not sure why I have such a mental block when it comes to listing items on Etsy! I thought it was the whole photo process - but these were photographed and ready over 2 months ago, so that's not it. And Etsy did streamline the listing process down from that horrid 5 page listing mess we used to have to go through, but I still struggle when it comes to listing. Anyone else stuggle with this? How do you get over the listing hurdle?

I'm also curious how others deal with listing sets. I have found that it is easier for me to list the individual parts of a set separately (e.g. earrings in one listing, necklace in another, bracelet in another listing), so if a customer doesn't want the whole set, they can purchase only the pieces they want. What works for you?

Long Kazuri Necklace

I bought some black and white Kazuri beads (hand-painted ceramic beads from Kenya) at a bead show about 4 years ago and squirreled them away in my stash . . . and hoarded them, and hoarded them, and finally decided what to do with them!

The Kazuri beads have nice-sized holes, so I created a multistrand necklace with thousands of size 11 black seed beads, and a few 3 mm cube-shaped onyx beads. I hand-strung all the seed beads, 'cause that's the way I roll. This probably would have been the perfect project for one of those bead spinner thingies, but I don't have one, and it really didn't take too terribly long to get all these beads strung.

I used 5 different Kazuri beads - 4 have black and white patterns, and one is solid black. I like the symmetrical asymmetry (that's a thing, right?) The necklace is a delicious 44 inches long, and I've worn it long, but it can also be doubled up, like on the mannequin above, so it's very versatile, and goes with a lot of stuff.

I don't often string this many seed beads - I am a beadweaver at heart, sewing each little seed bead individually into intricate patterns, so I'll probably never invest in a Bead Spinner. Anyone out there have experience with one?

Amethyst and Pearl Multistrand Necklace: Hot off the Worktable!

The fruits of this week's labor, started Tuesday afternoon.

I have steadily worked on this one all week, and just finished it about 30 minutes ago. I got it photographed, and listed on Etsy, too!

In addition to the beadwoven endpieces, created from Jet AB2x cubes, there are graduated strands of gemstone chips (in amethyst, ametrine, citrine, and quartz), several large dark amethyst nuggets, and gold freshwater pearls. I used a Swarovski cosmic ring for the toggle closure (with a beadwoven toggle bar). Sari ribbon finishes off the back of the necklace.

Oh My Stars!

This design started with some gorgeous 8mm teal matrix jasper beads that I had been hoarding. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with them, and one day I just cut the strand apart, grabbed some Fireline and several coordinating colors of seed beads, and just started playing.

This was a situation where the beads dictated the design, and I started making rounds of circular peyote, and when I "finished", I had a blue-green star. So I made as many of these stars as I could, and then started playing with how to build them into a finished piece.

I noticed that the stars' edges lined up geometrically to produce this pattern, so I started connecting them together, adding some Swarovski crystals for a little "oomph".

Once this piece was joined, I needed to figure out how to turn it into a necklace, and settled on a beadwoven spiral, using the same blue and green seed beads that went into the stars components.

Then I found a perfectly-matching glass toggle, and the result is this striking bib necklace.

And I had 2 stars left over for earrings:

I haven't decided yet what to do with this set; they may go to my Etsy shop, or they may stay in my collection - The bib was such a labor-intensive piece, and these are my favorite colors! Some pieces are SO hard to part with!