Originally, this piece started out as a variation of a “drop-dangle”, a design popular with, and beautifully made in many variations by my partner. This particular intepretation of mine was a good deal less successful, and I finally sold it to my sister for more or less the cost of the beads.

But even she tired of it, and a couple of years ago gave it back to me with the wish that I might rework it into something new. I thought about it for awhile, considered adding bone and garnet chips to make a multi-strand choker; the following year I threw in some gold leaf beads; and finally, this year, I got around to actually doing something about it, spurred by my interest in brightly colored floral vase beads.

So I made a floral vase bead on bright yellow glass, cut the old necklace apart and restrung it into the monstronsit—I mean big and bold necklace below:

Since my sister isn't shy about giving things back if they break, I felt free to use components that are a tad on the fragile side, such as rhinestone set beads. To keep the gaud factor from going completely over the top I used relatively simple gold-filled beads, since the piece has a variety of lapis shapes, colored rhinestone rondells, lots of cloisonne, and even champleve beads. The original dangles are preserved in the tassel. No point in wasting all that perfectly good gallery wrapping.

Even though the recipient already has one perfectly good huge gold and blue necklace, she didn't seem to mind getting another.

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