Luna's Baublebilities

Here's my latest project.

I'm really enjoying having all of these beautiful new seed beads to work with.  I've reached a point now where I have so many fabulous beads in all sizes, shapes and colors that ideas and inspiration come pretty quickly when I'm in the studio.

I've been making a lot of Right Angle Weave & herringbone bracelets and wanted to work on a choker.

I made Two strips of herringbone weave from the Gold Lined Crystal Rainbow bugles and the Gold Lustered African Sunset cubes.  Then I connected them at an angle by attaching a Right Angle Weave medallion I made from the same bugles and the Dark Brass 11o TOHOs.  I embellished the medallion with some beads from my private stash - there are some 3mm Swarovski topaz beads, some big FW pearls in a bronze/yellow color, some 4mm metallic carmine red firepolish beads and a little metallic gold magatama.  (Trust me - if I find a wholesaler for that bead, I'll put in the shop straight away!)  I also embellished the "corners" of the RAW with tiny picots of the Silver Lined Rosaline Pink 15o beads.

I haven't figured out a clasp yet.  Molly wants me to put snaps on so the clasp would be invisible but I don't like that idea - it wouldn't be adjustable and I think that even if I custom sized it for a customer, they would want to be able to wear it with a bare neck or over a turtleneck so I need to design a clasp that allows for some variation in snugness.  I really should have used a wide link chain and a hook clasp (maybe?)  but I misjudged the length of my herringbone strips and they are pretty long.

I think a toggle clasp with some tassels or other weight to pull the back down will be nice.  I want the herringbone to lay flat against the neck and not curl or twist as it goes around the neck so it sort of needs to lie at an angle both in front and at back.  A tassel or other weighted clasp in the back will accomplish this nicely and add some interest in the back in case someone wants to wear it with a backless dress.

I think there will be about 10 hours total in it when it is finished.

Here are some bracelets I've been working with.  I really am loving these bugles for Right Angle Weave.  They work up fairly quickly and have lots of sparkle.

The Purple one used Higher Metallic Grape and Rainbow Iris bugles along with some teeny traingles that I've had in my stash for a few years. The toggle for the clasp is made with bugles in ladder stitch.  I like that much better than 11o peyote stitch tubes.

The bottom one was made with Matte Purple Iris bugles and the Crystal Rose Gold Lined cubes.  You can see here how well those cubes sparkle!  The clasp is another - much smaller - RAW medallion.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to work up some tutorials this summer.  Our kitchen is almost finished (or at least, the first and most important half of the room is almost done!) so Hopefully I will be able to organize my household a little better in the next couple of weeks and have more time to draw diagrams and photograph processes!

I also want to try some double St. Petersburg stitch bracelets and necklaces.  Mortitra has a terrific tutorial on Double St. Petersburg over at Inspirational Beading.


...