Yes But What's It FOR?

Sometimes I have (even if I do say so myself) absolutely brilliant ideas which beg and whine and pester me to be realised, and I'll give in, powerless, tweaking principles as I cut and restitch, and then when it's done or I'm tired of it (whichever comes first), I'm not quite so sure.

This was a fine way to combine these lovely raku lampwork barrel beads with my prized metallic and golden seed beads, most of which are two or three times the price of almost any other bead, except perhaps something black plain black or white, which certainly have their place, but aren't generally lust-inducing like these. The colours really work well together. 

My original plan was to gradually change colours in each marquise shape (well, what are they?), but because I needed them to curve, I decided it would be more of a distraction, and so used the lampwork beads as a boundary between colours. I alternated matte and shiny colours for the main beads used in each marquise, and paired them with larger beads in the opposite modality (shiny with matte and vice versa) for each section. I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm also pleased with the way they keep their shape quite well. If I hung something heavy, they'd distort somewhat, but I haven't, so they don't. That works too.

My original plan also included a smaller marquise shape as the loop of a toggle closure, but somehow that fell away, so I was left with a long chain of open loops. 

I think it can work as an adjustable lariat, and I think it has the right heft too: not so light it'll lie funny, and not so heavy it'll pull through and choke me. Or whoever is wearing it.

And that's the other unknown: whether to keep it or sell it.

Which brings me to a little pleasure.

The local bead store runs a "Bead Art" show in the spring in the fall, in which we can set up tables to sell beaded stuff. I participated a few times, but after the last time, when temperatures approached that of the surface of the sun, and there was an issue with my children flying unaccompanied to Florida to meet my brother who was late to the airport - suffice to say that this event became tainted for me.

When back in January I fell into the bliss of sloth and indolence via a fortuitous layoff, I decided that in the interest of the appearance of an effort to promote myself, I should once again participate in "Bead Art". Unfortunately, I was dropped from the mailing list, and so never signed up.

It's next Saturday and I don't have a booth.

Luckily, the local Bead Society does, and I have friends in the Bead Society who took pity on me, and agreed that if I worked a shift or two, I could bring beaded items to sell.

Yay and all that - I only wish I'd started building up inventory a few weeks ago, but still, I do get to go!