This necklace has now sold, ending forever the option of re-photographing it. Normally that would mean I wouldn't bother to make a page, because I didn't feel I ever really got a good shot of the finished piece; however, I like the progress shots, and I usually don't get around to making those: the early spring light was ideal for documenting the top of my stringing desk:)
Project begins, 23mar05.
As you can see from the picture, getting started on a major project like this one involves a lot of beads; some, of course will not ultimately fit in with the final design, and are discarded, such as the garnet red seed beads on the right. This necklace basically follows the lumpen format, which means I start at the back, with the cable doubled (folded over) at the clasp; the ends will be crimped at the bottom of the tassel.
This closeup is (at least in my opinion) a better shot of the focal. Though I do use wax—mostly when I'm embroidering stockings I have no idea why it's on the table, since I don't need it for stringing beadalon. But a little mystery adds interest, right? The dark green dottie in the lower left is, like the focal, lead glass, but it's czech rather than the Japanese satake.
Still a lot of beads on the table, but some have gone away. At this point the size of beads have ramped up considerably from the seed bead (1mm) to 4mm size beads used at the beginning of the piece. In order to keep the strands relating to each other, and each side balanced, I string all of the strands simultaneously, putting a “phrase” of perhaps 2–3” (50–75mm) at a time on each strand before moving on to the next.
The finished piece, completed 03apr05. Note the large hole ‘collars’ constricting the strands between the small and large beads. I made these on, um, gee now that the piece has sold I can't check—but either 1/4” tubing or big hole mandrels from arrow springs. 49 stranded beadalon, silver, glass, (including lampworked sodalime and lead glass by the artist) rose quartz. Completed 03apr05. Private collection.
And why the appallingly long file names? Well, it makes it easier for me tell what page is about; they're unique (that is, all the files—images and text—have the same prefix, making it easy for me to tell which images go to which file—very important since when I upload, I only want to move the new stuff, not the whole directory!) and...I have autocomplete. Without that I probably wouldn't make such long names! The latest wrinkle is putting a year prefix, which makes it easier for me to tell roughly when I made the page, and automagically groups the pages of a given year together....
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
