Dequeued

Using the same base technique but with the rectangular two-hole brick beads instead of the square two-hole tile beads, I made a slightly smaller beaded bead. I couldn't embellish it in quite the same way; it's rather plainer so I might have to fiddle around and see if I can't make it a bit more interesting or textured or something.

 So it turns out that beaded kumihimo is The Best Thing Ever for keeping the discomfort of CMC arthritis at bay. It may not help with the actual physical breakdown of the joint and hideous deformation of the hand, but it seems to keep things lubricated and warmed up enough to keep me comfortable.

Only thing is I'm getting a bit bored with it, even with trying to mess around with variations in bead shapes and colour and texture patterns, but even worse, the more ropes I make, the more clasps I have to stitch and I get really bored with that too and so the queue gets bigger until I can't stand it any more and sit myself down and force myself to stitch clasps.

 It's not as though I didn't want this necklace as a finished piece because those are Peri-beads, fabulous hollow shapes she fooled around with for a while before moving on to something else. Those are the only ones like that which I have and in fact it turns out that the best way for me to use the beads I have of hers are in kumihimo, so I guess I can never stop.

 I believe this is titanium-plated agate, or some other semi-rough stone. The gold iridescence is much nicer than I was able to capture in this picture - the pendant is a deeper blue with more gold shimmer.

We all like gifts which we'd have bought for ourselves had we the opportunity but they're even better when they were made by the gifter. I love that I now have a necklace with a focal bead made by Denice and given to me for my birthday. I understand she made it years ago, before I knew her, in colours that she would never ever in a million years wear, and I have to believe it was waiting for us to become friends so that she could give it to me.

It's pretty perfect actually.