I’ve been getting the feeling that turning my entire crafting stash into finished objects is not really going to be about emptying my stash closet. Plunging into the bead portion of my inventory is making this even more clear: this endeavour is about generating masses and masses of treasure.
I suddenly have three necklaces to my name, and the stash has not gotten visibly smaller. It doesn’t take many beads to make a necklace, at least in the context of my 15 pound supply. Either I need to make a lot of necklaces, or I need to reconsider my decision not to make another beaded curtain.
This is copycat jewellery
The first necklace to come out of my stash is my attempt at copying something that caught my eye at the Starving Artist Bazaar. The original was fluorescent red and blue, which triggered my spider senses from afar.
I haven’t attempted to make jewellery since I was about 8 years old, so I’m still getting my inspiration really directly and obviously. I like to think of this in the spirit of sketching from masterpieces.
I’m excited to figure out how to make more things up out of my head, though. All those neck bones and cords to work with!
Basic ingredients and method
I used two units of stash:
- a bag of about 50 pointy, purple, glass beads
- a collection of 5 aqua blue, glass beads
Then I went and ruined it by buying more crafting supplies!
- a length of black cord (used half)
- a spool of silver wire, which has definitely settled into stash status
- a set of clasps
It took about an hour to make this, mostly spent figuring out how jewelry works.
I settled on twisting the wire around a pencil to make a long spiral and threading beads onto that. Then I threaded the black cord into the spiral (easy), and pulled the wire at both ends to tighten it against the cord. I poked some of the beads around and made an extra loop to create that bump of blue, then clamped on the clasps.
I judge this a success
I’ve been wearing this a lot. The colours and the blue orbs remind me of retro visions of space. Space Race: a Necklace!
