I've been working on a beading project for a while now.

[camwyn]

Not sure exactly when I started. I know I bought the book with the pattern in it back in January- it's Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance: 20 Beaded Jewelry Designs. (I had never heard of her before, but Fire Mountain Gems had a sale and the book was $5, so...) I've been working on the Macha necklace from that book off and on for some time, and I finally finished it last night. Word of advice: the numbers given for the # of grams of seed beads required seem to be a bit off. I am not sure why, but my suspicion is that the original pattern may have used metal beads rather than glass- either that or the beads were purchased in pre-sized packages and the numbers were for the package rather than the amount of beads used therein.

Anyway, here's the result:


Every time I work on this kind of thing I come away with a new respect for Native American beadworkers and for anyone who has ever worked in the bead-stitching portions of the garment industry. Also for the good people of the Boots Group pharmaceutical research team of 1961-1964 because hu, boy, can my shoulder cramp up if I'm not careful during an extended session, and that's when they discovered ibuprofen.

Comments

[tam_nonlinear]

The picture isn't showing up.

[camwyn]

Argh. I thought I used the correct link. Must've moved it to an album after copying the URL. I'll fix it shortly.

ETA: That's better. Also, never try to access Photobucket via Android mobile device. It will refuse to show you any pictures, only load the ads, and then will launch multiple different Google Play links because OF COURSE you wanted to install all the crap advertised on the page.

[tam_nonlinear]

That is some astounding work. I can see how many hours went into it and I'm feeling sympathy for your hands and eyes, since I have some idea of the aches that accumulate after that sort of focused and repetitive work, but that's some damned fine art to suffer for. Good job!

[camwyn]

One of these days I'm going to start a stopwatch every time I work on a bead project just so I can record the amount of time involved. I know the numbers for hand knitting are high- I paid for my first couch ever by finishing a pair of sleeves for a woman who needed them done for a photoshoot deadline in a knitting magazine. The numbers for beading have to be up there in the same territory.

[jothra]

Holy CRAP. That's very impressive work!

[camwyn]

Thank you. I haven't cramped myself on a project like that since I was in grade school and they made us write thousand-word contest essays in cursive, by hand. worth it, though.

[in_the_blue]

That is gorgeous. I was always impressed with anyone who had the patience to do that much or that kind of beadwork. Every time I see you post something, it makes me want to go back to beading.

[camwyn]

I'm probably going to do a bracelet or two next. There are a lot of necklace designs I love- and one I started on a while ago and got grossly wrong, but need to pick apart and start over with a different bead colour- but I've got a bunch of necklaces at this point. It'd be nice to make a few of something else.

I do plan to start offering things on Etsy at some point but I'm not sure what the protocol is for selling jewelry you didn't design yourself. I assume that other than very basic designs ("here's how to make a ring using peyote stitch and a Cellini spiral!"), you're supposed to sell your own design work rather than make someone else's design and sell the end result.

[misslucyjane]

That is gorgeous.

[ymfaery]

Holy cow, that's awesome. Go you. :Db

[crazyfurries]

...Oy, my hands just twitched in painful sympathy for all of the hard work you had to put INTO THAT.

[derien]

"holy shit" is exactly what I said when I opened that photo. Wow. Just. My mind boggles. THAT'S a lovely piece of work, but also I'm not at all surprised you needed some ibuprofen.