Positive Strides

Wow!  I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post.  Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?  And I have been having fun.  I finished inventorying my various bead and jewelry supplies, and I've purchased some new items for designs that are rattling around inside my head, begging to be let loose. 

One of my oldests friends' daughter is getting married next week, and I just finished making her wedding necklace.  I'll add a picture of that after the wedding; it should make its debut on her wedding day!

Last weekend I attended a wire-wrapping workshop by Sue Cartwright.  This was my first guided attempt at wire-wrapping, though I had tinkered around a bit with craft wire on my own.  Sue brought a fabulous collection of her own works and invited us to choose one of them as the pattern for our fledgling efforts. 

The first project she had us complete was with a focal bead drilled through its length.  I had a minor panic when one of the wires used in my wrapping broke.  (It's the squiggly one running down the middle of the stone.)  But with a bit of redesign on the fly I was able to salvage it.  All in all, I'm not too disappointed in the way it turned out.

Our second piece used a top-drilled bead or crystal, and for that I used a shell bead I'd picked up a couple of years ago at either a craft store or Wal-Mart.  I love the shape of it, so I'm not going to apologize for its origins!  Since the bead is rather plain, I decided to dress it up a bit with Swarovski crystals.  I didn't have the problem with broken wires this time, but I wasn't completely happy with the way the bail turned out.  Practice makes perfect -- or at least better -- and I have a lot more big, beautiful beads to practice on!