Just a few examples of work completed using my very early beads - if only I had the time (and patience!) to make more... but the torch keeps calling.
Bold as Brass: the first necklace made with my beads, all odd beads yet I get admiring comments every time I wear it... much to my delight.
McOdd: a combination of my very early beads that were an attempt at making a set (can you see why I don't do sets?). Macrame skills learnt many years ago were put to good use to bring these chunky beads together into something wearable.
Visions of Cleopatra: My first real attempt at making numerous beads specifically with a item of jewellery in mind - the turquoise, rice pearls & shell beads pulled it together rather well.
Game Plan:More early 'odd' beads put together with some silver chain, red jasper & potato pearls as accents. Real Canterbury colours - but a bit flash to wear to the rugby.
Lush: Full of orphan beads in nature's colour palette - this woven bracelet was a great use for all the trial & test beads that I was producing like some mad scientist at the time. One of my biggest kicks at the torch is experimenting with how different glasses react with each other - sometimes these results are not reproducable. What better way to use them up?
New Beginnings: a very special 'set' of beads to me. They were intended as a reminder to myself that not everything has to be perfectly matched or go the way I 'would have liked'.
I made the beads New Years Eve 2007 & started by limiting myself to a colour palette of 6 glasses that would work with jeans & casual attire. I decided not to worry about sizes, but rather focus on how many ways I could use the colours I had restricted myself to. I torched for 5 hours solid - until bang on midnight & New Years Day 2008 put this bracelet together with what components I could lay my hands on.
Most days this piece is proudly worn on my wrist - as a reminder to myself that in order to be unique & individual, things need not be perfectly matched - in fact they are only truly unique if they are not.
