Unfinished, by Caprilicious

Sorry I'm late :)

Hello people, how are you today? I've been so busy this week with one thing and another that I haven't had a moment to catch my breath. And it hasn't ended yet - I'm working all weekend and am sitting in front of a computer at work, trying to catch up with you during a lull in the proceedings - hopefully not the one at the eye of a storm, but a harbinger of the rest of the next couple of days.

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I've had time to make a little pendant during the evenings - I made it to go with a necklace that I have - the plan was to make a beaded bail and thread it onto the necklace. Unfortunately I made a boo-boo and the bail is too narrow to fit the end caps of the necklace - however, if I had made the bail any taller, it would have been disproportionately large and unbalanced. C'est la vie and the best laid plans, etc, etc. So now I was left with a pendant and no necklace to hang it from. What a pain in the proverbial! I decided that I was going to make a necklace myself - I've always wanted to try this stitch, and I decided that now was as good a time as any to take the plunge. Like most people, I have to push myself to leave my comfort zone and it takes circumstances to click into place for me to decide that I should get on with it. However, I didn't have the time to finish the whole necklace, so have to show you pictures of half finished work, taken with my iphone.

My friend Eilidh told me how easy it was to make this beaded tubular necklace, but I was a bit anxious about believing a talented and experienced beader - I know that when one is practiced at something, the memory of how it was at the beginning is often lost.
However, it turned out that she was half right - it's not child's play, but it wasn't that difficult either. It's all a matter of being mindful of which bead to pick up next - if the wrong one is picked up, it skews the design and the whole thing has to be unpicked. Not something to attempt when you are exhausted, then!

Last weekend, I was rummaging through my stash of beads and found a string of 'Desert Rose' beads that I had picked up a little while ago. At the time, I just needed to have them in my stash because they are so pretty and so different from anything I have ever seen. I've been wracking my brains since I bought them for a way to make something with them and I decided I would mix them up with something dark, and super shiny. Whatever I used would also have to be light, as these beads are pretty heavy. I couldn't come to a decision at the time, and the beads went into my bead box. As I couldn't find anything in my stash to match the description of what I detailed earlier, I decided to make them myself. I looked to a tutorial by Debbie Crothers, an Australian polymer clay artist and designer, who specialises in surface techniques to embellish polymer clay. She makes some really interesting 'grungy' artefacts and I love her style. The beads were made with Ultra Light polymer clay, and then coated with liquid clay and foils, with a final cure using a wallpaper stripper type heat gun.

Dipped in Vampire's blood

Embellished with foils and a final coat of clear liquid clay

Alongside the Desert Rose Beads

The final look, and a naked bead

That's me for this week, folks, have a good week, and I'll catch you next Friday, all being well, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx