The Agate Necklace

I finally finished my Mexican agate bead necklace.

I decided to put the big clasp on, at least temporarily because in all the time since I bought the beads last year,

I have not been able to find another that I liked.

I still feel this isn't the final clasp but it will do until I find the right one.

The beads are threaded onto a very fine silver chain. The spacers are African clay beads (black and white) and antique black glass beads.

I wound up making the jump rings out of pieces of regular dress pins. Anything larger in diameter wouldn't fit into the fine links of the chain.

It works well, actually, since I have this nifty pliers tool for making links.

Soft Sculpture Necklace

Before clay, I worked extensively in fibers; weaving, needlework, ethnic clothing design, baskets.

Some time ago, I was going through some more slides of previous work and came across one of the soft jewelry pieces I made some years ago.

The soft jewelry grew out of designing ethnic clothing.

At one point, I was heavily involved with The Children's Art Center in Norfolk VA and a the Textile Designer's Association of Virginia.

A wonderful teacher, Margot Carter Blair arrived upon our horizon and taught a great series of classes on design and application of a huge range of fibers and embellishments. Margot is a gifted and inspiring teacher. You can see her work on: http://www.softflexcompany.com/WSWrapper.jsp?mypage=spotlightdesigner_Nov07.html. Margot is currently concentrating on doing rosary workshops using bead design.

This necklace is a pendent made of a cross-stitch pattern I designed, cotton embroidery thread tassels and beaded pom-poms and wrapped cording. The length is adjustable by positioning the two loops on either side of the back section. It can remain at the shortened length or lengthened by slipping the loops over the pom-poms on either side. The natural tension of cotton upon cotton holds the adjustment in place.

One day, I will repeat the necklace, but instead of cotton, use more luxurous materials--maybe a porcelain pendent and matching beads.

I'm so glad I started to keep a photography record of my work early on. It's great to have the visual references in order to dip into them and think about new variations on old themes.