Nicole's Necklace

Anyone who has the pleasure of knowing Nicole Campanella is aware that she is one of the loveliest, most generous and most genuine people around.  Not to mentioned talented!  She is a constant source of inspiration for me, and I feel blessed to call her a very close friend.

Nicole's birthday was on April 27 and to help her celebrate, I made her this sweet little necklace:

I wanted to send Nicole a little piece of sunshine to help brighten her day :-)

If you haven't already, pop on over and say 'hi' to Nicole!

Wind Dancer

When I was researching the humble hummingbird for this piece, I came across many stories of love and romance associated with these 'flying jewels'. One story I found particularly touching was an Apache myth about a young warrior named Wind Dancer. He could not hear, but he sang enchanting, wordless songs which brought fine weather and good health to those who heard him.

One day, he came across a young woman called Bright Rain who was being attacked by wolves. He rescued her and they fell in love. Shortly afterwards, Wind Dancer was attempting to rescue someone else and was tragically killed :(

His death heralded a terrible, bitter Winter which threatened the lives of many. The bitterly cold weather only ceased when Bright Rain started taking long solitary walks. Tribal elders discovered that her beloved Wind Dancer had been reborn in the form of a hummingbird, and appeared to her in fields of spring flowers. He would whisper magical secrets in her ear, and this brought her peace and joy.

After reading this touching story, Wind Dancer seemed an appropriate name for this piece. I'm always a sucker for a good lurve story :)

Hummingbird detail:

Fabric backing:

Clasp detail:

As you can see, after all my umming and arring, I went with a very simple clasp. Anything more would have been too OTT (over the top), me thinks.

So, one UFO (UnFinished Object) bites the dust...now onto the next one. Stay tuned!

Progress

The going is slow on my hummingbird collar, but I'm pleased to report that all I have left to complete is the clasp. And therein lies my dilemma...I have no idea what sort of clasp this piece *needs*. A bead-embroidered clasp? An S-clasp or toggle clasp? A bead-woven clasp? Any suggestions gratefully accepted!

Suggestions for boys names are also being accepted ;-) LOL

Here is the collar with the completed fringe:

And a close-up of the fringe:

I thought I would try a vertical, rather than horizontal, picot edge on this collar. Mostly to hide the foundation from showing through in a couple of places. I'm fairly happy with the result.

Hummingbird update

Just a quickie from me today.

I'm sitting here dripping in sweat from the heat and humidity, and my bun-in-the-oven is trying to kick me off the computer...from the inside. Cheeky little monkey is going to be a footballer, me thinks. Or a karate champion?

Anyway, I digress. Here are my latest happy snaps of the hummingbird collar in progress. It is still a long way off being finished, but I'm making progress as quickly as a fat, sweaty pregnant woman can. The backing is done and I've started work on the fringe.


And the backing...I was rather pleased to find this fabric with it's blue swirls being so similar to the swirls on the front of the collar. I think it works. Not so sure about the royal blue edging beads, but can I be bothered re-doing them? Nah. I figure they'll grow on me. Maybe...


Waddya think?

The Evolution of a Collar

Since I have made a pact with the lovely Sharon of Mana Moon Studios to catch and finish some UFO's (that is, Unfinished Objects...not alien spaceships), I thought I would post some photos as proof I am keeping my word ;-)

Here is how this collar has evolved over the last six months. Yes, you read correctly. It has been a work-in-progress for THAT long!

*hangs head in shame*

It all starts with inspiration, and a sketch. Not necessarily in that order. And not always with a sketch. In this case, I sketched first THEN looked for inspiration. Weird? Perhaps, but that's just how I roll.

My initial sketch

The end result is, quite often, absolutely nothing like my original idea. This piece is no different, as you will see. I wasn't sure if I wanted to bead hummingbirds or butterflies. After finding this gorgeous pic of a ruby-throated hummingbird, my mind was made up.

Inspiration (photo courtesy of http://www.gypsywind.com/)

I beaded one hummingbird and then, as so often happens when I begin beading, I decided to change my initial idea of three hummingbirds encircling the neck. Instead, my vision changed to a solitary hummingbird nestled amongst a garden of brightly hued blossoms.

The completed hummingbird

Well, I beaded flower after flower, and NOTHING worked. You can't even begin to imagine the amount of unpicking I had to endure.

*insert image of me ripping my hair out by the roots*

Most of my floral pieces are dimensional. However, dimensional flowers would engulf and overpower my 'flat' hummingbird. And flat flowers just wouldn't work. Or should I say, I couldn't make them work.

My 'work station'...a trusty 'ol Stable Table with a folded baby's swaddle cloth as a 'bead mat' to prevent beads rolling around. Yeah no expense spared, I went all out ;-)

So I gave up on the flower idea and decided I would create a simple background upon which my solitary hummingbird would take centre stage. As the background would also be 'flat', I wanted to create patterns which would create the illusion of movement and provide visual interest, without overpowering my hummingbird. Swirls were the solution.

Am I sick of blue beads yet...?

I tried many different colours and finishes of seed beads before I settled on the gorgeous transparent sky-blue beads sent to me by the very generous Nicole Campanella. It was rather fateful that these delicious seedies made their way into my life when they did...I think they compliment my hummingbird rather well.

So this is where I'm at. Swirls and swirls of blue beads.

I'm unsure how the finished collar will look, what fabric/backing will suit the collar, what style of clasp I will use, what kind of fringe (if any) will be required to compliment the piece, etc, etc. So many questions, so few answers. Trial and error is a large part of my beadwork. I rarely bead a piece from start to finish with a completed vision in my mind. I make things up as I go along. I like to live on the edge ;-) Heh.

Stay tuned for more progress photos!