Saturday, May 11, 2013

Orchids, the first big thing...

It was in 2011 when I decided it was time for my first big design. I had seen many rich flower necklaces and I really wanted to make one myself. I wanted the piece to be elegant and since I hadn't tried to make many flowers before and the orchid was one I was sure I could make (and it certainly is an elegant flower), I decided to go with orchids.

Next was the choice of colors. Originally, I wanted more shades of pink but then I started beading with just two of them - Inside-Color Rainbow/Mauve Lined and Silver-Lined Pink (both TOHO) and it worked. I added one more shade for the top of the pistil of each blossom.
I had never made such a big piece before, so it was difficult for me to figure out how the necklace should look and at the same time how to make it technically good. To make it even more difficult, I decided to use only size 15 TOHO beads. The rather thicker brick-stitch tube was not so problematic to make but because the beads are so small, I was really worried about how I'd attach the blossoms to it. Another concern was the closing. I knew I didn't want it at the back of the neck and I also wanted it to be "invisible". I bought a small magnetic closing, which was another "first" for me. Attaching it to the tube was a real challenge. As I beaded the tube, I left a hole in one of the sides just for the closing. Then I attached the closing to the back side (and from the inside) and I beaded a small peyote "wall" around the closing to hide it some more. The result looks like this:


As I thought, I didn't enjoy attaching the blossoms as much as I enjoyed making them. I broke some needles, wasted a lot of thread and there were many moments when I just wanted to bang my head against the wall. I shaped the blossoms by sewing some of their petals together and to the tube and after something over 60 hours, my work was done.

Now looking back, I can say that this project was ground-breaking for me. It took a lot of time (especially the tube), some cutting and remaking of some parts and a few technical issues which I had to figure out for the first time (hiding the closing). I made more bigger projects after this one and I continue making them and even though I made bigger and more time-demanding ones, none was so terribly difficult as the first one. And although it might not be perfect, I am still very proud of my first big piece. It turned out pretty good, don't you think?

This necklace was photographed on a beautiful model Livie:






Check out and purchase this necklace in My E-shop or on Fler.

And enjoy some more photos right here:




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