Go beyond technique

In my previous post about design, I wrote a long article about copyright and fair use and things like that.

In this post, I wish to talk about flat diagonal Cellini peyote to give you more examples about going beyond technique.

In the photo below you can see several designs made with this technique.

There are 3 peyote ribbons at the top, of which one is zipped in the length. All are clever beauties. The pendant on the left took much more time and research to create and clearly goes beyond technique. The Fandango earrings are a typical example of art-chitecture, the frontier between technique and art. Those who know me know that attaching the earstud and the earnut to the beadwork is a "Cath" signature.

When I made my Anthea's Tiara central stone bezel, I discovered how to make Bolas Canastas. I decided to give the Bolas Canastas technique to the people of Planet Bead, because of its huge potential. This is why I use the example of this technique: I see it evolve nearly "live" and with pleasure.

Flat diagonal Cellini peyote is only technique and I already had created many dimensional Cellini Peyote shaped beadwork. The tutorials for these pretties will expand your beady brain far more than the bolas, which is why I wrote tutorials for them:

3D or "Dimensional" or "shaped" Cellini Peyote creations:
Precious Pommanders, Mermaid Tail beaded
beads and Lotus bangle

Unzipped bolas are simply diagonal Cellini peyote ribbons. I don't see them as design, but as technique. Nobody can claim them as a design. But depending on what you do with these ribbons, the size, the bead count, the colors, the assembling method, they become designs. The method is the architecture to which you need to add a bit of your Art to make it your art-chitecture.

These Bolas are my designs, for their special
shapes and special colors

I made many different bolas. The variations in color and shape offer endless design possibilities.

Tooth pick vessel "Primeval Waters"

The longer and wider the ribbon, the more things become interesting. If you make a Cellini ribbon with your personal choice of bead colors and sizes, it will determine what the piece will look like in the end and that is what will make it yours. There is a different bola for each beader on Planet Bead.

Frosty is a shaped (triple) Bola Canastas
for which I made a tutorial

Of course, the more complex, the more a design can be "claimed".

Teresa Shelton is a very creative beader who uses primarely peyote stitch for her own creations. She made her Minx River earrings by folding the Cellini ribbon. This might sound very simple, but it takes a specific choice of bead sizes for a nice result. She teaches them in her region, but also gave us the sequence in the Cellini Peyote Freaks group.

Teresa's Minx River earrings in
delightful rainbow colors.

I had plans to make real earhoops. Créoles in French. I love that word. My plan was to add earstuds and earnuts to make hoops. I tried and ended up with my Fandango Earrings. 

My preferred version of the Fandango earrings are the ones with the studs and nuts attached to the beadwork as in the photo below, but I also made a dangle version with off-centered beads added to them). I think that my earrings really go beyond technique and that they are very "me".

Fandango Earrings

The same is valid for CRAW, Herringbone, Peyote, Diamond Weave, Brickstitch and many more techniques. Add your special touch. And if you encounter design collision, don't feel defeated. It means that you're on the right track!

When art is added to architecture, you end up with an original design

I like to think of the frontier between technique and a copyright design as art-chitecture. When architecture becomes invisible, trancended, then it is Art, and certainly fully 'copyrighted'.

We can easily differenciate this below - "Duo" uses herringbone (rope) and 3/1 drop peyote and "Time has Wings" uses herringbone, a mix of brick and picot stitch, Diamond Weave and a lot of inspirational details.

Time has Wings

Duo

But when does a creation, made with xy technique, become copyright? This is a difficult question and the answer, as well, is not easy.


This article is not academic. It is a personal view based on legal material and ethical views, and I hope that it will be of help. I decided to write this article after I got contacted by designer Aurelio Castano to show me a pair of fabulous pearl earrings made by him and Edwin Batres with Cellini peyote. If find them very beautiful.

Aurelio's earring

Aurelio considers that his earrings are too close to my Fandango earrings and despite my encouragements, he is very reluctant to write / publish a tutorial. He said that I was the inspiration and motivation behind it. But he didn't use my pattern, not even the same Cellini method.

It would be sad that he doesn't teach it. I think that he should. And I love that clever finding!

What is protected, what is not:

Aurelio's earring

Techniques are not copyright because they are necessary for progress (in every domain, science in particular). Only when a large number of steps and methods are involved, a technique can be protected by copyright.

Ideas, like "Going to Mars" or "a time machine" (that does not yet exist but in someone's brain) can also not be protected by copyright.

However, illustrations, photos and texts, patterns and such are always copyright, from the very moment they are published, no matter if the author protects them or not. Even a free tutorial is protected by copyright.

Fandango Ear Dangles

The way these works can be used is generally mentioned in the documents, or on the website where they can be downloaded. It is the author who decides where these documents may be hosted or how they can be used, so it is better to not host/use them without the approval of the author; often photos and tuts may be used for non-commercial purposes only.

Ethics: in case of doubt, don't do it. That is what Aurelio decided. But in my books, he may tutify his earrings because they have this subtile combo of his art added to architecture.

Between technique and design, it can be difficult to determine where the frontier resides. A good example of this complicated frontier are Jonna Holston's Fan-shaped earrings.

Fandango Ear Huggies

Fan-shaped hoops make a come back in the Cellini Peyote Freaks group. They look lovely with other Cellini creations, for a variety of bead sizes is used to create the fancy semi-circle shape. They are also perfect last-minute project for Christmas gifts. I could easily see how they were made (peyote in the round with Cellini sequence), but I wanted to find the original pattern back, only didn't know where to look anymore.

Cathification of Jonna Holston's Hoops

With the words "Peyote fan shaped earrings", I found a blogpost by Linda Genaw, Caravan Beads, several photo tuts on blogs and on BeadDiagrams.com. Google also showed my very own Fandango Earrings, which made me smile.

But I remembered a much older pair, which a Swiss beading friend had adapted from a project in a magazine. So I pushed my search a bit further and found out that I actually had the Bead & Button magazine in which Jonna had her "Holler for Hoops" project published. You can still buy Jonna's pattern here.

Jonna Holston's earrings
are like little baskets,
not flat

 

At first sight all fan shaped earrings look the same, but Jonna's earrings are slightly bumpy. They're double sided, like a half-tire. Gold-plated seed beads are heavier then the ordinary ones, so double sided was not my goal. I based my earrings on Jonna's start and had to adapt the bead sequence too for a really flat fan shape. It took several attemps before I got mine right. And I altered them with a 6/0 Miyuki baroque pearl to give them a personal touch.

Caravan Beads used different bead sizes and two more beads in their first pick-up (and fabulous colors), resulting in larger earrings, Anne Lazenby of  Beaddiagrams altered Linda's tutoral and turned 5 fans into a very beautiful necklace, Linda altered a Russian pattern. My fans are smaller than the others (less rows) with only one Miyuki size 6/0 baroque pearl seed bead to somewhat customize their look...

BeadDiagrams.com altered Linda's instructions
and turned 5 fans into a very beautiful necklace.

 

All the resulting fans are flat and lovely, yet Jonna's signature can be found back in all the variants: same bead count for nearly all, and most of all, her top 3-bead-bridge, which allows a regular decrease on each side of the earrings to create the shape. Very clever and a distinctive signature of her artchitecture.

I've seen many "Holler for Hoops", but not one exact hoop as Jonna's, double or single sided. I've come to the conclusion that most beaders who tried to make them had a hard time obtaining the desired result, no matter what pattern they choose to use. 10 years after the publication of her pair in a magazine I am not surprised to see an off-spring become "public domain". It actually seems that it had a long 'solo' life

This is a typical "grey zone". In case of grey zone, it is good to remember that in copyright laws the concept of fair use may apply. Learn more about Fair use - it is not something that allows you to use something without consent. It is a concept that acknowledges the possibility that there is lack of knowledge: here, many don't know or remember Jonna's design. They used a free tutorial from a Russian site, or from another blogger, and they say so. Fair use is also about design collision. It happens. It is unintentional. It is not totally impossible that the Russian who made that pattern did it from scratch. But those 3 beads... that start... hm hemmm. Fair use is a legal concept and may be invoked in a case. A judge will decide if yes or no it applies. Ideally, avoid getting that far and stay away from legal complications.

I say, let's bring beauty to the world, remain kind... help one another, give credit when we know / can and take a design sufficently further to make it our own.

Thank you for reading this first, long post about design. Read my next post about going beyond technique and please, leave a comment. I love to hear from you!

IBW 2019 - year long challenge

Hello my dears,

This year, International Beading Week was fab! Our IBW group was super active thanks to the leadership of our new Administrator, Susannah Thomson aka ZannahMakes, and the invaluable help from the talented Sarah Cryer, aka The Indecisive Beader, not to mention the efforts of all the other wonderful peeps from the Beadworkers Guild who worked restlessly behind the scenes to make this week memorable. And it was.





New ambassadors joined the team of permanent ambassadors and offered tutorials for free to celebrate this special week. You will find them all on this page.
Anita M. Adamson, who founded and administers the beading group "Seed beads and more" on Facebook interviewed many intervenants of IBW and the Beadworkers Guild. Successful, happy meetings were organized in many places in many countries (learn more on the IBW website about all this).

An amazing beading marathon took place in Prague, at NaSpirale, organized by the incredible Ivona Suchmannova, who invented another extraordinary beaded bead to teach at this occasion.

I hope to join these ladies one day! And not only them! I have to find out how to clone myself 😄

I also offered a new design, the Rainbolas. I hope that you will show me your bolas!

Rainbolas - tiny bolas canastas

Our fearless captain, Sylvia Fairhurst, who dedicates a ginormous amount of time to the Beadworkers Guild events and exhibits in general, started this wonderful week by a broadcasted tv-show on Jewellery Maker TV - you can view a lovely interview of Sylvia here and see her launching IBW with lovely projects here. They show the fabulous collection of beaded beads in the first minutes, it is woah!! 

Other amazing designers also appeared on Jewellery Maker TV, like, for example, Patty McCourt who not only taught her designs, but also launched a new bead shape, the volcano bead, and organized a Mega beaders meeting in her home town.

We are all very happy and hope that the world will bead on with renewn energy and motivation.

Now, as you may already know, during International Beading Week, we  assemble the 12 elements or 12 groups of elements to create our special Year long color challenge organized in the Group on Facebook.

Here are the marvelous results of this year's cuvée:

Beth Clark made her
very own dodecahedron

Photo of the other side of
Beth's dodecahedron

Erin Markovitz made a marvelous collar with
her very own orchids made with the
"Petal to Pod" technique by Cath Thomas

Above: Lava beaded beads by Rebecca Flood.

Belowt, Daisy wheels beaded by Sue Hargreaves based on a tutorial by Heather Collin.

Dora Davies made fabulous "Darling Flowers" -
The beaded centers are from the book
"The beader's Floral" by Liz Thornton and
Jill Devon

Susannah Thomson made a lovely collar with
warped squares.

Amanda Capes-Davis made beautiful "Starburst
Galaxy" stars, based on a design by Gwen Fisher.

 

Joan Petitclair made this delightful collar
using the trillium and morning glory patterns
by Diane Fitzgerald.

Ann Wilson beaded and illuminated these
Star Jewels based  on a tutorial by DiMarca Online.

Please join me in congratulating all the participants on their beautiful work!

You can participate in this challenge too!!!

What is it all about? In short: each month we bead one element in the same color as the little people in the banner of IBW: We start in August, with yellow, and continue with light orange in September, and so on each month, until in July we make our last, lime green piece(s) to assemble everything during IBW. There is nothing to win but the satisfaction of completing a beautiful rainbow creation. It might seem easy at first sight but sticking to the project is a challenge, which is why it is called the Yearly color challenge.

Starting early is not mandatory, but recommended to keep up with it. It is entirely up to you to decide what item(s) you want to create for your very own rainbow of delight.

To bead or not to bead ...

is not the question. I'm a bead junkie! So the question is rather: why do I bead and why we should all transmit our passion for beading to other people during International Beading Week (and beyond).

I am a permanent International Beading Week Ambassador. I am not paid for this. I have discovered the magic of beading thanks to generous, kind souls who transmitted it to me for free, and I want to pay it forward. IBW is about sharing passion, friendship, and making this world a better one, one bead at a time.

Many beaders start beading because a friend showed how to make something beautiful. Others started beading because they needed something to change their mind from something frightening... like illness and treatments, or to have something to keep their hands busy... Some do it for cultural reasons, some bead to make a living.. but most bead because it is simply so good...

"After the Rain" glass tubes and
metallic round beads

Yes, beading is good. It is grounding. It is fun. It is beautiful.

And... colors do good.

Chromotherapy has been used since times forgotten by humans and left aside by modern medicine. It is fortunately making a come back, because it has proven to be healing, physically and mentally.

I think that this is one of the reasons why I can't stop beading. It is my colortherapy.


After the many years that I bead, I know now that if I listen well, my body will choose what feels right. I've beaded with all colors, starting with blue, then green, brown and gray, later pink, purple, orange and yellow. The last two were my least favorite colors until I started beading rainbows; now I don't know how I could live without them. I love red too. It is always very intense, and after making something with red, it takes me a moment until I want to use it again.

Meryl bracelet - a free
pattern made for IBW 2018

My "need" for colors resulted in a lovely stash. I have beads in colors which I absolutely "had to have" but beaded nothing with. Just having them, looking at them was enough. I know that I will make something with these beads one day.

The healing properties of colors might also be the reason why, after having beaded during many years, you suddenly have a blockage or no more desire to bead, or no more interest in using this or that color. Maybe you've healed something in you without knowing about it.
 
It's a bit like a sailboat waiting for wind. While waiting for the wind (or here your muse) to come back, you can do other things...  like beading rainbows. Because rainbows will make you feel good. Always.

International Beading Week logo. 

We bead rainbows in the International Beading Week Group year long challenge.
I created Anthea's Tiara (which won a gold medal in the Fire Mountain gems and Beads beading contest last year) by making each month one element in one color of the IBW banner.

Anthea's Tiara

The free pattern for the Meryl bracelet is still available on my website (and will remain free).

This year I beaded bolas canastas in the colors of the IBW logo, and the instructions for them will soon be available there too, as well as in the IBW group on Facebook. I will also make a video to explain the method.

Rainbolas - tiny bolas canastas - this is the project
for International Beading Week 2019

Not only does beading do good, but as far as I'm concerned, beading prevents me from going nuts. Thanks to beading and the Internet, I am blessed with lots of online friends, like-minded people I would love to meet in person but cannot because of my health. If you can, don't hesitate and go to a beaders meeting. You'll have a blast! And if you cannot attend one of the events listed on the BWG website, then create one yourself!

Farfalle stitch - Rainbow Butterfly Cuff

Invite friends, or do a demo. You can do this anywhere! Sit at a café table or in a parc and take out those stunning beads and weave them together. Show your art to others, be proud. Don't forget to let the world know about it in the group and tell the Guild, and post lots of photos and videos of the fun!

Remember that beading might not be for everyone, but it might be the right thing for someone.
And we are there to help him/her find it!

Little Rainbow Warrior's ruff (2012)

International Beading Week is about our beautiful art, about friendship, about connectedness.

It is about raising awareness about our craft, making it better known, and recognized as a noble Art.
It is about raising awareness about ethics, and promoting our local bead shops, because we need them to continue sourcing beads and findings for us to enjoy.

It is also about raising funds for charities - for example, Jean Power's secret bead along is a  big success every year and all the procedures go to the charity of your choice.

During IBW, you can become a member of the Beadworkers Guild for a special price. Take advantage of this special offer to discover the quality of their magazine and projects. I love to read their articles.

The Guild also organizes a draw during IBW, in which you can win awesome prizes. To enter, you only need to send a beaded bead to the BWG for their beaded bead collection, which is a many yards-/meters-long beaded bead chain to enter. You can also bead a name badge, of which a photo is enough to enter.

Last but not the least: artists from all horizons offer free patterns of beautiful beadwork and beaded beads for free, to download either directly from the BWG page or from their websites. Visit this page for more information.

To love, to care and to make some magic

In January I received a package with lovely soft pink and lilac beads from Preciosa's "Natural Colors" range, together with their Candy Rose beads. Preciosa asked the designers to focus on wedding and babies, which I did with happiness.

I made a Rose Walk necklace design with the Candy rose beads.

Preciosa published this design already some time ago, but I don't remember telling you about it on my blog. I don't remember well how I made it.

The soft seed bead designs have been published only today. I made 4 items for them:

1) a pair of bolas canastas earrings, for which I also wrote the instructions and which are now published on their website. Have a try at bolas! You can make so many things with this method.

I think that it is important to put beautiful toughts in our beadwork, so for this  key charm, made for an old rusty key which. I thought of the very charming, old hotel where the love of my life and I had our honeymoon. I added a charm which says "believe in love".

I also made a baby rattle. I thought of a lovely FB friend, beader and designer who happens to love pink as much as me and who was pregnant back in January. I asked Preciosa Ornela to send the rattle to her for her lovely baby girl to enjoy the music. I think that it is important to show that we care when we have an occasion to do so.

Last but not least, to add a bit of magic, I made a sweet scent bottle, which is completely self-supported. It contains a cotton with a lovely Ylang-Yland and Blue Lotus essential oils mix. I believe in the power of flowers. Scents have magical properties.

And the cherry on the cake is that Preciosa wrote an article about me on their news page!

I see *La Vie en Rose*. Visit Preciosa's album on flickr with photos of the many beautiful creations made by other designers.

Nefertum's Wesekh

When I saw the Beadworkers Guild challenge theme for 2019, "Jewels of the Nile", my first thought was to not make a collar. No way! Because there are so many out there already and amazing ones. So I searched for what could be another Jewel of the Nile and found the Egyptian blue lotus flower and god Nefertum.

Oh my!

Nymphaea caerulea. The Egyptian blue lotus is, in fact, a waterlily, but most call
 it the Egyptian blue lotus

I instantly fell in love with this beautiful waterlily and started my first creation immediately: a small vessel for tooth picks representing the waters of the Nile with the flower floating atop of it.
    
However, this was not a very stable construction, and the crystal beads in the vessel  - which is a bola canastas made with diagonal Cellini peyote - cut the thread without mercy. Twice...


This had the merit to answer my question as to keep the flower as a toothpick holder or not: I repaired the vessel mimicing the art of Kitsugi to forever remind me that crystals are not bola-friendly, and made that a nice toothpick holder, and created a barrette with the flower (not yet finished).

This is a sign that Eddie didn't hear it this way (Eddie is my muse and tyrant). He wanted a wesekh. Nefertum's wesekh. Bead woven. Of course!
The rules of the Guild's challenge say "we urge members to concentrate on the personal challenge - to be as good as they can, rather than pitting themselves against others". Bead embroidery would not have been easy for me. Rather the contrary. But to weave a dense collar with a curve that doesn't ruffle yet still moves with the wearer's movements, is a challenge, at least for me. So I gave in.

But before writing more about the making of the collar, I wish to tell more about lord Nefertum and his attribute, the sacred blue lotus:

Antelope with
lotus flower

The Egyptian sacred Lotus flower

While doing my research, I discovered that lotus flowers can be seen in countless ancient Egyptian tomb wall paintings and temple carvings, from the oldest to the most recent dynasties. It is everywhere: in people's hair or hands, in large collars, on piles of offerings to the gods, etc. Even around an antelope's neck. Some temples even have columns with lotus-inspired forms.

Painting of Funeral banquet in Rekhmire's tomb at Luxor,
showing servants offering lotus flower necklaces to
female guests who are seated on mats.
Photo Mick Palarczyk and Paul Smit

The god

In early Egyptian mythology, Nefertum was believed to be the first god, the young Atum (Nefertum means beautiful Atum, or youthful Atum), who came out of the blue out of a blue lotus that emerged from the primeval waters of Nun. He cried because he was alone and his tears created humanity.

Egypt, Tomb of Ramses I, Pharaoh (center)
presenting offerings to Nefertum (left)

Atum was a solar deity, so Nefertum represented the sunrise. He matured into Atum during the day before passing into the world of the dead with every sunset.

Later, as time wore on, Atum became assimilated into Ra (as Atum-Ra), the sacred scarab became the symbol of the rising sun, and so it came to be that people regarded Nefertum as a separate deity. The lotus flower never lost its popularity though. Rather the contrary.

Another funeral banquet (of Nebamum) showing
musicians and servants dancing and offering
lotus flowers and flower necklaces to guests

The Egyptian geranium
smells like roses

In the Pyramid Texts (book of the death), Nefertum is said to be the scent of the lotus flower which is held before the nose of the aging god Ra:

"Rise like Nefertum from the blue water lily, to the nostrils of Ra (the creator and sungod), and come forth upon the horizon each day."

Priest (botanist or
aromatherapist?)
 with botanical
attributes and
offerings.

I think that the heavenly smell of the flower is both a memory and a 'promise': the soon to come rebirth in the lotus flower (the next morning). For the Egyptians, the flower represented rebirth and they celebrated the passing of a dear one as the beginning of a new life. Of course there are many other - sometimes contradictory - legends and myths and gods.

Nefertum eventually became the lord of perfumes, patron of the cosmetic and healing arts derived from flowers. Associated to other medicinal flowers, such as geranium (another divine smell) and cornflower, he could be described as the archetypal aromatherapist.

Actually, this blue lotus study made me order blue lotus essential oil. It smells divine and has no narcotic effects. Learn more about my love of scents in my article Perfumes and Pomanders.

What is a wesekh and / or a menat

I thought that a broad collar was called a menat, another name of goddess Hathor, whose attribute was a collar with a heavy counterpoise. It was used by her and her priestesses as a rattle for blessings.
In fact, wesekh is the name of the large Egyptian collar, thought to have many (protective) properties, hence worn by men and by women, and the menat is the name of the counterpoise, keeping it in place.

18th Dynasty Menat (approx. 1300 BC)

Many ancient Egyptian wesekh represent the wings of a vulture or a scarab. The golden counterpoises in the one shown below can hold it without need for a clasp. If you look at the two images below in full screen you can appreciate the fine craftsmanship of the Egyptians.

Senebtisi's collar, formed  of two golden falcon
heads. Approx. 1850-1775 B.C.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New-York

The colors

The Brooklyn Museum experts say: "For the Egyptians the lighter shade of blue was almost interchangeable with green, the color of the sea, plants, vegetation, and thus health and life. The darker shade of blue was associated with the dark primordial waters out of which creation first appeared, as well as the night sky through which the sun-god traveled to be reborn every morning. Naturally, blue-green faience and blue glass were cheaper alternatives to turquoise and lapis-lazuli."

Obviously, bugle beads and dagger beads are not new beads :) Isn't this amazing?

Broad Collar, ca. 1336-1327 B.C.E., ca. 1327-1323 B.C.E., or ca.1323-1295 B.C.E.
Faience, 14 7/16 x 4 7/16 in. (36.6 x 11.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum,
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 40.522. Creative Commons-BY
(Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 40.522_SL1.jpg)
Visit the Brooklyn's Museum page to learn more about this piece.

Techniques

The ancient Egyptians invented enameling. They were master goldsmiths. They were masters at bead making and bead weaving. They even made some sort of seed beads. The piece above includes incredibly tiny seed beads. Looking closer at it, I realized that my collar looks as if it is made with a method very similar to the one they used.

The Egyptians already used peyote stitch to weave seed beads. A pair of beaded sandals found back in King Tut's tomb attests of this technique and of the "seed" beads existing already back then (although probably not made like seed beads, but rather one by one, by hand...)

King Tutankhamon's sandals made with "peyote" stitch

Making of my challenge piece, Nefertum's wesekh

I found the idea of humans created by the tears of the morning sun or god a wonderful legend, so I planned on including teardrops in the collar as a main design feature. Even if faceted gemstones, or diamonds, are not present in ancient Egyptian jewellery, this was the story that I decided to translate.

To create the right curve, I worked on my dress-maker's doll.
In this image you can see two Egyptian cat charms which I
renounced to include in the design.

Except for the earring findings, I had everything in my stash. It's funny how one can collect bits and pieces and keep them for a special piece, and suddenly it all comes together: real gold plated superduos, seed beads and Tila beads from Miyuki, all kept for a special occasion. This was the special occasion. I had genuine carnelian cabochons, a stone valued by the Egyptians, and tiny Carnelian round beads, turquoise pinch beads (which are close in form to the oblong beads used in many antique collars), vintage German glass cabochon, and perfectly matching Czech seed and bugle beads, all in the Egyptian's favorite colors: turquoise, lapis and dark red.

Like all important deities, one of Nefertum's attributes is the Ankh symbol. I first thought of using it for the clasp, but my second carnelian cabochon had a white stripe across and was begging to be transformed into a scarab. I made a scarab clasp with it. At the end of this article, you will find more about the making of the clasp.

I didn't keep the Ankh symbol, but the bottom part became the lotus flower stem.

RAW and MRAW stitches were used for the bezels (also for the matching earrings) - the photo of the cab left shows the cabochon in a bezel I didn't keep.

The gold-plated Egyptian charms which I also had remained unused. I didn't want the collar to shout "Egypt" but rather suggest it

Sticky thumbpad

Techniques used: a mix of netting and DW for a dense weave. It was difficult to get the curve right, but the result is so delightful to wear. It perfectly adapts to my neck and movements and doesn't ruffle!

I made  a handy tool to work on the bust: a sticky thumb-pad! I rolled a post-it around my thumb for this. I need to buy a real sticky pad to transform it into a more practical   thumb-pad!

Decisions, decisions....

For the bottom row I tried several options before deciding on the final one.

For the clasp and the bead-embroidered lotus flower, I used very thick blue leather for backing. It was very hard to pierce with the needle and I had to use grip tape, but it allowed me to nicely finish the edges of the lotus flower with a herringbone edge.

Lotus flower - back

All parts of this collar were started over several times, but it is the lotus flower for which I hesitated the most. I love 3-dimensional bead weaving and of course tried to use it. I abandoned that idea after two different 3D versions for the flower, which didn't match the design style. I was stunned by how the Egyptian "feel" disappeared instantly.

To achieve the desired look, I opted for bead embroidery. In the October 2018 journal of the BWG, Priscilla Jones explained how she made her beaded swans (shown in a previous journal). I followed her advice to use gold seed beads to outline the petals of the flower, as an homage to the invention of enameling by the Egyptians. I mixed peyote stitch with the embroidery stitches for the leaves, and added tiny 2mm carnelian round beads to have the flower motif pop out.

To create the look of a sun rising above the lotus flower I first tried a transparent join, using crystal teardrop beads, but a "floating" lotus looked odd when worn. After several unsatisfying tests, I decided to attach the flower in the same way as the teardrops to the matching earrings (which I had finished already). The herringbone edge was perfect to make this join: it offers a 4 thread-join but is not too thick, and holds everything perfectly in place. And voilà, here is the result:

Although I made the clasp first, I kept its "making of" for the end of this article. It took some serious brainstorming to create. It appears to also offer a good counter-poise balancing the weight of the front pendant which would normally pull / deform the neckline.

Matching earrings

As for challenging myself: nearly everything in this collar was out of my comfort zone: unusual colors (for me), stitches I nearly never use, bead embroidery, and a difficult theme for my usual style: it is hard to keep proportions small or medium when it comes to this magnificent civilization.

My beading mat looked like a battle field.

The making of the clasp

A few explanations how I made the scarab-clasp - it took more time thinking than making.

First I made the scarab bezel for the cab and two
leather ovals with matching magnets.

I used one of the leather ovals to back the cabochon and
I backed the second oval
with a 3rd leather oval.

The clasp is approx. 13mm high (a half inch).










I bezeled the small glass cabochon, also backed it with leather.





Then I connected the small cabochon to the leather back part of the clasp.






I managed to include some 3D peyote: little legs (articulated) for the scarab. A left and a right part.






The left legs are attached to the back part of the clasp and the right legs are attached to the upper (cabochon) part of the clasp.


The bottom legs can hide in the open space between the two clasp parts, or not, because they are articulated.

Clasp - open

Clasp - closed

 

I couldn't be happier with this necklace. When I wear it, I feel amazing! 

Cherry on the cake: the hubby said that Cleopatra would have killed to have it!

One more photo of the earrings:

I love how they let the light shine through.

Thank you very much fore reading this long article!

Cath,

incredibly happy winner of the first place in the "Expert" category of the BWG 2019 Challenge.

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