Things I learned this week

Here are some things I learned this week:

• There is a reason I made the switch from bead-weaving to wire.
• In the time I spent making an 8-inch choker-width length of RAW, I could have made an entire byzantine neckchain AND a nice focal.
• Toho beads are much less regular than Miyuki beads.
• Still, RAW is appealing and I'll finish the piece I started, just a bit at a time.

So, Friday evening I decided that I would have to make something entirely different for this week's YOJ. I decided I could do an interrupted byzantine bracelet with Swarovski accents and it would be okay.

That night I had a dream that I was making a pendant using a black disc bead and some little sparkly hex delicas in a mixture of colors, kind of Mardi Gras in feeling. A cat licked my face. I woke up and thought about it, and realized that the design would absolutely work. I thought about it some more so I would be able to start right away in the morning, and when I went back to sleep, dreamed about it some more.

On Saturday morning, all I had to do was find the disc bead. It was one I had received as a bonus (free! if you use promotion code!) when I had ordered from an online supplier, and I was afraid I had not put it in a logical place. After a bit of looking, I found it, and then I got to work.

• Made a tiny bit of bead soup from hex delicas.
  
• Mounted the bead in a coiled frame.
  
• Worked net bezel as done by a drunk spider, adding and weaving through the beads randomly.
  
• Added a row of the sparkly beads around the edge.
• Made a hidden bail.

So, here it is. Augie thinks the beads look like germanium diodes, and he says that he keeps trying to figure out what the circuit would be. I think it looks like a high-tech amulet -- you know, the kind you touch and it begins to glow and pulse and then maybe it transports you or something else remarkable. Or like it could be activated by a sonic screwdriver. Not the ominous kind, though.

Anyway, technical details -- the bead was labeled "gemstone shape" but it sure looks like glass to me, and has a large regular hole, so I'm guessing black glass, especially since it was free. It's an inch across, about 1/4 inch thick. The core wire for the basketweave is 20g soft sterling, the wrapping and netting are 28g sterling. The sparkles are Miyuki #11 delicas and hex delicas, all either transparent or silver-lined so they are extra sparkly. For something done at the last minute from a design that came to me in a dream, not bad at all.

Your comments and critiques are always welcome. Thanks for looking.