To celebrate a friend's milestone birthday (Happy 5oth!), I thought I'd make her a pendant. I know I wanted to use purple swarovski crystals. I was sure I wanted to create a piece using silver and 24K gold delicas, so I started working on the stones while I tossed around ideas on how I wanted to complete the piece.As most of my bead projects progress, I start bit by bit and then proceed with components piece by piece till it feels "right." The stones stayed on my work table for some time before I finally decided to frame 3 stones in a rectangular piece. I managed to shoot the work in progress as I made the "frame" but completely missed out on shooting the completed piece! I was just too excited to wrap the piece in a box to give to my friend. Here are shots as I made the piece.
I started with the desired number of beads in a circle then delineated the corners for the rectangle with herringbone corners.
I worked around the rectangle for as many rows as shown. I didn't want to frame to be thicker than needed as I wanted a rigid structure for the pendant.
I found it easier to work the piece into 3D by working on one side rather than working in the round. So once I hit the halfway mark on one side, I started with the gold beads for the design and continued on till I had completed one side.
I zipped the straight sides closed and kept the slanted ends open to be connected later as I completed each side. Now work on another side and zipper it shut.
After the longer side has been zipped, your can weave the corners together.
Complete all sides of the pendant. Finally mount the stones and weave the bail. I just did a simple bail, 4 beads wide, about 16 beads long. For chain, I used a gold filled snake chain with a lobster clasp to complete the necklace.
Beading is great therapy. It certainly helps me to de-stress from work. But life took a turn and the stress became personal as my husband was diagnosed with cancer. The energies got shifted to him and beads became trivial. But beading still helped to keep my sanity. What do you do when you don't have access to a computer, can't really bring your beading stuff with you and had hours of dead time in the hospital where you really couldn't concentrate but needed to occupy your mind? I turned to coloring triangles. Pages and pages of triangles, I had a box of my son's coloring pencils in my bag, a template of a triangle and I would ease my mind into a mindless mental state and just color those little blocks. Some people looked at me like I was crazy (I still am!). Half the time, the results would be nice, the other half just gibberish. Funny how the mind can go into hypermode and idle at the same time. Mind and No Mind, kind of a thing?
Now we are in remission (yay!) and life getting back to somewhat normal - depending on your definition of normal. I took the drawings and started to render these triangle pendants. It's been satisfying to bring these colorings to life. You know what they say about finding some light in life's dark moments. I think about my state of mind then when my purpose was just to color each tiny block. And now the satisfaction I have in finally taking these drawings and creating something tangible, real. And, hopefully, give enjoyment to the person who decides they like the pendants enough to wear them.
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