Creative Challenge

Quite some months ago I was given some hand-made glass beads. It was a friendly challenge. Liz had been working for some time with glass fusing and slumping and had recently been developing her skills in more detailed work to add to her designs. Meanwhile, the question was what to do with these special one-off's. At the time I was offering some beginner jewellery making classes, so the connection was made.

Well, those beads sat on my table challenging me for nearly six months. I didn't want to put them away, out of mind, but I didn 't have the chance to really focus on the task either. Multiply this situation by any number of occurrences and you'll have some understanding of why it's hard to find a place to rest a plate of dinner on my big table.

Anyway, I finally sat down to the task a couple of days ago. Here's some of the result: Since I was working with single unique beads, I decided to emphasise that aspect. I didn't add any other feature beads to the mix, just a few seed beads in toning colours. I made up the rest of the length with bits of chain, satin and velvet ribbon and wrapped wire. Now they're sitting in Liz's pigeon hole at the Neighbourhood House for her to see and comment.

In other news: the planning permit for my shed-studio is finally through. Now for the building permit, which should be a formality. I'll try to sound excited later. Now I'm just thinking of all the last minute preparation I'll have to do if the shed kit is actually going to arrive in the next few days. Watch this space!