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| Lilly Pad Necklace |
Available now in my Etsy shop. Here's the listing! This was last year's attempt to enter the Fashion Colorworks beading contest. I did not win, FYI. I didn't even submit pictures half as good as the one above. And this one even has some issues. The pictures I did submit were quite embarrassing, which is why I don't use my phone for product photography. But hey, I made the deadline! That counts for something.
What's more, I actually ENJOYED every single second of creating this piece! That is incredible rare for me when it comes to making large scale work. At least in recent years. Forcing myself into specific themes, materials, or color schemes simply does not work most of the time. I have learned to just give things up or set them aside if they don't come together easily. That doesn't mean every failed competition piece ends up being a waste of time; it just means I had practice developing design elements or techniques.
I did both with this necklace!
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| Individually embroidered components. |
I think it helps that I kept the components simple, yet the same. I just alternated the colors. Each have one row of bead embroidery, brick stitched to a leather backing. Also featured are brick stitch washers with a glass button sewn down the center. There are holes in the copper disks behind each element. :-) It was quite a fun construction, which I have employed several times since.
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| Lucite Button Focal |
The lucite button is the real reason this necklace came together. It was originally from a necklace I made about a decade ago.
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| Finalist: 2010 FMG Pearls, Organic Beads, and Modeling Clay |
Click the link above to see Fire Mountain's photography. As much as I absolutely love the first version of this necklace, it ended up breaking. Not even my fault, that. The shank on the button became old and brittle after a few years. It crumbled right off, leaving me with just the necklace and no focal attached. At the time this happened, I had grown out of asymmetrical work and didn't have a desire to mend the necklace, so I ended up cannibalizing the entire thing into a bead soup and set it aside for a while. I also glued the button to a backing and embroidered a couple rows of light green 15/0s. Then had no clue what to do with it from there. ......until last year. It fit within the pink, green, and magenta color palette perfectly.
Here are some progress photos of the new necklace:
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| Arranging. |
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| Gluing to bead backing. |
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| Back stitching. |
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| More arranging. |
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| Assembly. |
I am pleased as punch that this necklace worked out so well!! As I said, most of my competition specific pieces don't. Maybe I'll enter it in something soon. I think I might could manage a finalist placing for Fire Mountain's seed bead competition. Guess I'd better get a move on! The deadlines in two days. Yikes!
While I do that, how about you guys go listen to some Rob Thomas to brighten your day? He's one of those artists who I continue to love, long after his initial heyday. :-)
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