For three years glassact has organized a retreat in the depths of winter to combat the blahs; this year we took over the Kalamazoo House entirely, filling the living and dining rooms with assorted bead projects Friday evening. One of these was Anne S's beaded and embroidered greeting cards (I managed to punch out the corner components for that one); one was Margaret S's stitched and beaded spirit doll (I collected the leftover scraps from that one) and the third, the only one I came close to completing, was the bead soup necklace.
41", strung on nylon(?); composed of member discards, including member and other lampwork, semi-precious, wood, czech pressed, base-metal, etc. Begun 23 jan? completed (tightened, knot glued & clipped 2apr09)
I started with the purple (or blue-violet) lime, and orange acid-etched hexes, and worked in both directions from there. Anita identified a fun looking and very nicely made dog-bone in hot colors with black as hers (it kind of blends in with the bead behind it in the picture) but otherwise I can only say none of my rejects are in this piece.
This was a frustrating project for me because I didn't have a proper needle, pliers, glue or the other tools I use for stringing. Though some of the other members did some very cute things with the ends of the string, I wanted to make an endless design that more-or-less followed the rainbow (and must have been reasonably successful, since f2tE, upon sighting the piece, tried to swipe it "because you know how much I love rainbows" —given the rainbow marker decorations upon her person and the tights, I'd agree).
But the strings hanging out, because I didn't have any glue to secure the knot, meant the piece looked unfinished, which I think hurt it in the judging the following night. —Sheila M. did win an award for a necklace featuring a large red fugly as the focal—she made the piece as a sort of lariat.
Because I wasn't just randomly stringing beads together, I had some leftovers, that either a) didn't fit in with the concept (e.g. the pendant, I didn't want there to be a particular focal point), or I failed to get ’em in when I was doing that particular color (purple) or I liked ’em too much to put in (rita's terra cotta rake bead, which I absolutely adore).
Assorted bead soup beads. The two raked pillows are by Rita Stucke.
necklace completed 2apr; photo & post, 03apr08.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
