There Was Beading After All

Colour aside (always problematic for me), this was a bit difficult to photograph such that the structure shows well. I might have to make another.

I've had the sketch around for a few weeks, and it took three cut-up samples (I mean that literally: I took scissors to them) until I got something close to what my mind's eye saw when I drew them.

The bail part should accommodate a herringbone rope, but I didn't have one handy for the picture.

I actually had no thought of a particular lampwork bead either when I conceived of this, nor when I started stitching, but once I saw the interaction of the seed beads and fire-polished beads (all fairly random selections, not even slightly carefully considered), I knew exactly which bead to use.

The not-white background is due to my frosty acrylic mini-bust which a sort of a dingy not-quite-white about which I'm Not Pleased.

Some years ago when my friend Gayle started selling her lampwork beads on eBay, she mentioned a particular glass artist with whom I was very taken. At the time, this artist maintained a web-site (as well as selling on eBay for sometimes thousands of dollars per set) on which she advertised either gift certificates or special orders which weren't too (relatively) hideously expensive.

My boyfriend at the time wanted to give me a gift certificate for my birthday; unfortunately the above-mentioned glass artist no longer actually offered them, due to the lucrative nature of her eBay gig.

[As an aside, her beads were lovely, her copy and photography were outstanding, but no set of lamp-worked beads is worth $7000 or even $4000 or even $2000 in my opinion].

Anyway, in lieu of a gift certificate for a set of beads made by this artist, the boyfriend gave me a virtual gift certificate for lampwork beads on eBay, and with that, created a monster of sorts.

Long after the gift certificate was used up, I continued buying lampwork. The only reason I stopped six months later was that I got laid off, otherwise my collection would be in the nature of an investment, rather than merely slightly impressive.

This is one of the beads from this period, and all I remember about the artist was that her first name was Elizabeth, and the bead came from Canada. Either way, I'm fairly happy with the way it's displayed.