Like thousands of jewel-toned grains of sand, an impressive collection of glass, plastic, and stone beads lay at my disposal, practically in front of my nose for half the day, but completely invisible to my mind’s eye. Tucked away in a carefully organized case, towering above my book shelf with its numerous cloudy drawers, you would think that something that size would be extremely visible, a constant reminder of the treasures it holds. In reality, concealing the hundreds upon thousands of baubles prevents them from ever entering my consciousness, causing this otherwise obtrusive grey storage bin to blend into the background along with the long forgotten books and DVDs residing on shelves directly below it.
For this reason, all these available, gorgeous beads keep crying out to be used without being heard, sometimes for months on end. Taking note of the passing of one year since I began posting, I decided to take a brief look back at old posts for nostalgia’s sake. Patterns began to emerge in short time, and I can’t say I was entirely surprised at the number of entries that fall under the greatly neglected “beading” category. Knowing that there was no way to make up for all this lost time, I thought it would be best to atleast make an effort to dabble again in the other wonderful crafts I have experience with. Expecting little from my stash after having turned my back on it for so long, such a great pleasure it was to take in all of the colors, shapes, and sizes all at my disposal. I’m out of practice in this field, to say the least, but motivated by my inspiring materials, I pressed onwards and ended up with a nice, easily formed choker.
Selecting beads based on color alone, the resulting combination wasn’t entirely satisfactory when brought together, creating seemed to be a slightly off-key harmony. Many of the awkward notes came from the size – Using all medium sized seed beads in addition to the token drupes, the whole piece may have worked better with the incorporation of smaller pieces. Still, for the first stab at the craft in who knows how long, it could certainly be worse!
The design was based on one that was found online, but that site seems to be having trouble right now, so I’ll add the link in if it decides to straighten itself out soon. I just found the concept too cute and simple to pass up, the picots reminiscent of little bows adorning a child’s ribbon.
Hopefully I can get back up to speed quickly, allowing me to return to creating the intricate beaded lace that I once found deliriously thrilling to complete. For a little while though, my efforts may have to be focused on new strategies of how to spill the tiny little beads everywhere only two or three times in the course of an hour. Darn my clumsy reach!
stunning!
Coincidentally, my beads — thousands of them, it seems — have been calling to me from their tidy drawers and compartments. … Your necklace inspires me to give them some overdue attention!
Beautiful!
i b4roke my beads out the other day, too. for a swap, mind you. but they are out. i’m actually using pearls forthis creation. i have many beads that i haven’t done much with.
what did you string these beads onto? i have difficulty selecting the right wire.