Milady's Pendant

Last year, I took a class with Cynthia Rutledge. Finally, I'm done.



The pendant itself was mostly completed by the time class was over but I had set it aside for a while.



I pulled it out last week and finished up the bail and made the spacers. The last couple of days, the east coast had been visited by hurricane Irene so I decided that I would hunker down and try to put the necklace together. I spent a lot of time working on the clasp and in fact, this is the second version of the clasp that I made.



Since the necklace itself is actually strung, I originally thought about using a metal clasp but what I had on hand did not do this piece justice. So, I decided to bead it. The first iteration of this clasp also had a beaded bead cap that cupped the end pearls with a loop inside through which I could thread my Softflex. However, the combination of the loop and the crimp bead left the bead cap sitting just a bit apart from the pearl so I put it aside last night and went to bed. This morning, I came up with this iteration.



The toggle and loop are made and I decrease the ends to a loop so they look like a part you would buy at a store. I then strung the same beads onto the Softflex and used that as the connecting loop on my necklace.

I do love this necklace and I must find a way to incorporate this into my wardrobe. It is a beautiful piece and very ornate but by day, I'm a software developer who dresses business casual leaning more casual!

When life gets hard...

I bead. The last time that I really remember taking solace in my beads was when I worked for Raytheon and I helped make some of the flowers for Donna's book. I haven't really touched my knitting much in recent days but I'm zipping through the beads. I picked this up again today.



It's Cynthia Rutledge's Milady's Brooch/Pendant Ornament. I'm opting for the pendant since I don't really use brooches. I took this class when she taught at Bead Obsessions last year and when I put it aside, I was very close to being done. I held off because the dangly bit wasn't quite centered but a year later and looking at it with some tired eyes, it looks fine. I just need to finish off the bail and string it up with those pearls and I can wear it out! I'm looking forward to new jewelry!

Clematis

I have new wall art! This is Donna's clematis pattern that was originally for a potted plant but I have adapted it to fit in a frame. There is only so much surface area to place stuff before you have to start going up a wall. A clematis being a climbing vine, it was perfect for this! My trellis is made up of 3 pieces of 16 gauge stem wire that I beaded. There was some fun with a staple gun involved. Every time I fired the staple gun, I hoped that it wouldn't accidentally end up going into a finger or leg.

It's probably just me but I enjoy dimensional art much more than just a flat piece. It appeals to me more. Look at what I create, have you ever seen me paint or draw? It's not pretty. I like the effect of the 3 cut beads on the flowers versus the regular beads on the flowers. It helps the flowers to pop out more.

Getting closer!

Remember all of that greenery? Well, we're getting a little closer!



Donna is back to teaching. Her students are all slowly finding their ways back to the beaded flowers. Life had taken over for a bit but we're all slowly coming back to our old projects. I've even managed to hook up with an old friend that I knew from this group. She lives up in Baltimore and we lost touch when she changed jobs but now her office is a couple of blocks from my house so we're going to try to get together periodically to get stuff done!