Cleo, Again

Today is a rainy Saturday. The dogs are giving me various degrees of side-eye because it is too wet for them outside. Clearly this is my fault; in their minds I control the very weather. I am watching ‘The Apartment’ and beading merrily.

I finished Cleo, the black and gold collar necklace that I previewed in its unfinished state in an earlier post. The loose threads have been removed and the necklace chain added:

The gold beads that make up the motif in the view above are black on the other side, so the piece is reversible:

I will be displaying and selling my work at a show in Del Mar on December 2^nd so I am finishing up many partially finished pieces. There will be several short blog posts to show off new pieces as I wrap up the final touches.

Finishing work is my least favorite thing. It would probably be much easier if I wove in loose ends as I went but I am always too impatient to see where the pattern is going to take me.  

Cleo

This is a piece that I just finished last week. It is made with square glass two-hole tile beads called 'czechmates'. The gold beads are black on the other side, so the necklace is reversable.

This photo shows the many threads that still need to be woven back into the piece. It would probably make more sense to weave them in as I go along, but I just can't stop beading when I really get going. I wait until the very last step to weave & trim the fuzzies.

The final necklace will have a chain attached with a clasp in the back. I originally was going for an Art Deco feeling but I think the finished product looks more Egyptian, so I am calling this Cleo. I want to make a jagged-edge cuff to go with this.

As much as I love the tile beads I cannot for the life of me figure out nice earring designs to go with the necklaces that I've made. These beads are not lightweight, so any earring that I make from them has to use only a few beads or they will be too heavy. I also tend to think that, with a really bold statement necklace, you don't need attention-getting earrings (but maybe I am just rationalizing to cover up my lack of good earring ideas).

I have an idea to design & make a wall hanging out of these beads. It would be like making a stitched mosaic. Again, however, it will end up being a very heavy piece. The thread that I use is a form of fishing line, so I suspect that it would hold up well, but the wall might not.