Beading and Experimenting

I had got some beautiful red glass beads from Cookson Gold. I wanted to create a beaded lace type necklace that I had seen in a tutorial a long time ago. After much looking I found the right tutorial, but it was for seed beads. I tried to follow it but gave up because the results were not what I wanted. (I didn’t even take a photograph of it, it was that bad.)

Determined not to give up, I decided to create a simple ladder weave choker with the beads. At first I decided to use beading thread but for some reason I don’t get along with it. I’m not sure why, but for this project it felt wrong. Maybe I do not like the floppyness of the finished piece. As you can see, I did not get very far with. (Please excuse the stain on my macrame board, it is only chocolate.)

So I started again, this time using tiger tail. I prefer tiger tail and use it a lot in my beading projects. It gives the pieces a rigidity, and keeps the shape well.

It took a while to do a length of ladder weave long enough for a choker, and when I had finished I thought it needed something more. This is when I decided to have a play, experiment with an idea that may or may not work. Luckily, it did. I am not really a beader, and made up this design as I went along. It was fun working out how something would fit together, with only a vague idea how I wanted it to look.

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I particularly liked the heart design that emerged. I wanted to add some focal charms to draw the eye more to finish off the piece. These are attached via jump rings.

The moral of this story is do not give up if you cannot do something. That sometimes playing and experimenting can be worth the results.