Not a Geisha

What a week this has been! After all the excitement and tears of joy the first half of the week, I put my mind to my YOJ offering for the week. While I have been trying to build inventory so I actually have things to sell, I really wanted to try to make something on-topic. Problem is, I haven't seen Memoirs of a Geisha, although I read and enjoyed the book. I tried out any number of ideas mostly along the line of cherry blossoms, sketched, played with wire, and generally got frustrated. Nothing appealed to me.

Then kitty Clawdia, in a bout of the night-time kitty crazies, knocked over a storage bin and spilled it all over the bedroom. Of all the things to dump, it would have to be jewelry things that had been set aside a while ago. What a mess! As I was gathering up the mess, in amongst the now-loose beads and tools, I found an unopened work container with a partially fininshed right-angle-weave band. I decided to complete it, finish it as a necklace, and use it this week. It has nothing whatever to do with geisha or Japan or anything like that. However, one of the positive aspects of YOJ for me is the drive to completely finish items. Like many of us, I suspect, I have had a tendency to allow UFOs to proliferate. YOJ has helped me curb that. I finish almost every piece now, to my great personal satisfaction. So this piece just called out to me to finish it.

Technical details: RAW worked in #8 pearly seed beads and #11 translucent matte pink delicas. I love the structure the large/small bead combination creates and the color play of the dominant large beads with the color peeking out in between. The weaving was done with C-lon using the two needle method. I prefer it because I find easier to keep my place. I also think it is quicker, neater, and easier to tension evenly. The clasp is a simple box clasp. I don't usually use this kind of clasp any more, but it was in the box with the rest of the materials. It actually looked about right so I went ahead and used it. It is lightweight like the beadwork. Any other clasp that I had on hand would either have been the wrong style or too heavy. My one change from the original plan was to wire the clasp in place with 28g sterling rather than trying to tie it up with the C-lon. Actually, that was a big improvement, so it worked out well that I didn't finish it back when I was doing more beads than wire.

It came out nicely, I think. It is not really a necklace for an adult. It's too pastel and lacey and princessy for any grown woman I know. OTOH, someone might want to buy it, so I'll put it out for sale just in case. Meanwhile, it has given me a starting place for a piece my daughter wants, a Victorian-ish collar with dangles in black beadwork. That will be fun. It's also a great starting place for bracelets galore at a low materials cost, so that's a good thing, too. I'm thinking black with different color delicas, maybe.

So, not on topic, only token wire, not terribly original. Still, I'm not unhappy with it, and hope you like it.