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.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
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.
Friday, May 3, 2013
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.
And here some more photos:
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