B.O.T.B ´13 - Beading under pressure and with a newborn in my arms

I have mentioned to just a few of my friends that I'm participating in an international beading contest. I didn't say much more but I feel I should make it right at least now when the deadline is approaching.

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.

Meadow necklace

If you're at least a little familiar with my work, you have probably noticed that I enjoy flower designs. It started with brooches, continued with bobby pins and I wanted to make also a necklace which would give the impression of one of these flower wreaths you make from freshly picked flowers and put them around your neck.

I decided to go for the flowers of soft colors which can typically be found on a meadow - bell-flower, bindweed, thistle - and add one sharper color, that would be the poppy blossoms. Making the bindweed and the bell-flowers wasn't anything especially difficult, since these designs are used to create so many things. The thistle is a combination of a beaded bead and a simple "fringe" top. I have seen beadwoven plants similar to these three before so it wasn't a big deal to figure out how to make my own and of a little different shape and color. What I'm especially proud of are the poppy blossoms which I designed from zero. I know, it's just brick stitch but to make the petals and assemble the blossom actually takes a lot of time as well as shaping the blossom well.

The rope should be quite soft and fall around the neck rather than hold a regular shape, therefore the herringbone tube was a clear thing. To stay with the meadow theme I decided to create a grass imitating fringe on one end, which would be passed through a loop on the other end. It looks really good but it wasn't enough, so I added a small magnetic closing a few centimeters over the ends and under the flowers.

As for the material - everything's the Japanese TOHO beads but the lower part of the thistles, that's Czech glass beads Preciosa.

You can purchase the Meadow necklace here (Czech and international) or here (Czech).

And here some more photos: