Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Bubbly Blue Beadwork Adventure Necklace

Who doesn't love electric blue?  Even better when it's electric, capri blue!

But I digress - This one began with a little adventure!  You see, at the last minute, my boss asked me to take a little road trip (only about 2 hours away) to do an errand for the office.  (Which, if you know me, is an adventure in itself because I am a little directionally challenged.  Thank goodness for G.P.S!)  Well, when I found myself in Sacramento, and at lunch-time to boot, I could not help myself!  I had to visit this awesome bead shop, U Bead It!!!  I've only been able to go there a few times, but it is definitely BEAD PARADISE!  So I quickly gobbled up my lunch and spent the rest of my lunch hour excitedly and hurriedly doing some bead shopping!!! Yay!!!

I found these beautiful capri-blue, long Magatamas that I've been wanting to try for SOOO long!  You see, my local bead shops don't carry these, so I thought I'd try just one little vial-full.  MISTAKE!!  I should have bought at least two or more - oh well!!!  And this is where the necklace escapade began . . .

I thought, okay, I will make some earrings.  I finished one and started on the other, but realized I didn't have enough Magatamas to finish the second earring!!!  That is the moment this became a necklace!!  I attached the second unfinished "earring" to the top of the first, added some crystal rondelles and bugle beads, and commenced the actual necklace portion using my favorite stitch, twisted herringbone (or Ndebele).  


The difference between bead sizes in the herringbone rope and the tension used, created this great little zig-zag sway in the necklace!  

To finish I used one of the ideas from the video I blogged about a while back: "Architecting A Clasp."  I hid a magnetic clasp in the back, so that you can create more of a twist or less of a twist simply by how much each side is rotated before the magnets are connected!!  


I think the electric-capri-blue, the spiky Magatamas, and the waviness of the necklace as a whole capture the last-minute excitement of that quick trip to Sacramento!!  (Sometimes it really is fun when there's a hitch in the creative-road and you find a way to go around it and make something completely different from what you'd planned!!)

Have you ever started in one creative direction, and ended in another?  I'd love to hear your stories too!!!
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