As I stated in the previous post, I decided to do some stringing with all of the white pixies, pearls and crystals that have been piling up over the past several years. The poorest quality went into a mini-curtain I made as a proof of concept. Having eliminated all the really bad beads, I still had a lot of rather lumpy freshwater pearls. As the quality increases, they become smoother, but the texture inherent in the less-expensive ones—like the texture I also found so fascinating in chips—actually can add interest to a piece, especially one this monochromatic.

Freshwater pearls, sterling (US & Bali) silver, glass (crystal [austrian & chinese], czech fire polish, seed beads), antique steel-cut & aluminium seed beads, beadalon. There is also one hollow lampworked bead in this piece. Can you spot it? Summer 2006.

It turns out that the two stick clasps I had were interchangeable, so I conceived the piece as something that could be worn as a necklace-and-bracelet set, or as one longer necklace, the two clasps acting as focal points. I showed the work-in-progress to a friend of mine, who immediately volunteered to purchase it. Bracelet too, even though she doesn't wear bracelets. She's been nagging me ever since to finish, but I was concerned she might not like the fringey ends on one side of the clasp. She took a few moments to get used to them, and returned to her prior exhortations to finish. Now assured that she really liked the piece, I did, finally. Strung up the bracelet, measured it against her wrist, and now it just waits on me to finish.

Ah well. Perhaps I'll do that today. And take a decent photograph of the intervening bead curtain project, and do my laundry, and pay my bills, and...

Private collection. file created 17oct06; added fwp tag, 30sep23

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.