I love getting email from the site's readers. This one, from Ms. Haider of Minot, North Dakota, explains how she incorporated my instructions to ‘do something special’ with the antique brackets given her by her mother-in-law. She says she's never beaded before, but you'd never know that to look at the results, pictured below:

The strands measure appx 42” long. There are 30 strands. I didn't want them all the same length. I call them my Hippie, Hippie Shake curtains! copyright Vicky Haider.

The unequal strand lengths has lent the bottom edge of the curtains a sinuous curve, thereby echoing the curvilinear lines of the brackets from which they hang.

This closeup shows the antique brackets, which remind me of 19ca ironmongery.

She says she particularly wanted to capture the ‘sparkle’, and I think it's safe to say she's met her goal. I'm very pleased and honored to show this variation to you. Isn't it just marvelous that we can share stuff like this, even with thousands of miles between us?

Tight closeup of the stringing. Note the large rocailles (looks to be 6/0 and 8/0s) interspersed with the inch (25mm) long bugles, which gives a gives a subtly different rhythm to the piece; the use of opaques; and unifying elements such as the clear colorless lanterns, consistently (and neatly!) used to finish all the strands.

Ms. Haider is making this work available under a creative commons noncommercial, share-alike license. N.b.: I lightened the images a little in gimp. File created 27mar07.

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