Feeling the Love

I have always thought that beaders are wonderful people.  Since discovering beading in 2007, and making friends with other beaders on facebook I have made some wonderful friends.
I've gone on holiday with people I've only met online, and come away with friends who will be close to me and have a special place in my heart for life.
This last year has been tough, and the support that I've been given by all of my friends, particularly my beading friends has been invaluable.

Yesterday, I received the most amazing gift in the post from a group of friends, showing me their support and love for me.  It has completely blown me away.  Twenty ladies have spent their time, money and creativity to make this beautiful piece of art... some of whom I've never met!  The fact that they care enough to contribute to this is just staggering.

So, here it is... the beautiful picture, showing people's love - for me! 

I've put the names of the beaders next to the hearts they've made - a couple of people have contributed two hearts.

To name check the wonderful people who contributed to this... because they deserve to have their talent shown off, and their kindness and generosity shouted from the rooftops.

In no particular order:

Michelle Knight, Lynda Harrison-Twells, Jenny Argyle, Nicole Stanley, Gemma Andrews, Lorraine Imasogie, Nancy Dale, Vickie Christian, Carol Paris, Ruth Duck, Karen Jones, Elise Freedman, Shirley Campbell, Clair Rigby, Dawnn Harris, Donna Sanders, Julie Cowan, Sarah Tucker, Barbara Pearson, Mary Marshall and Ann MacLeod Crisp.

There are so many wonderful people out there and I am very blessed to have these beautiful ladies in my life.  Every day that goes by, I thank God for them and their friendship.

This is a gift that I will keep for ever.  One of those special things that comes along once in a lifetime, and it means the world to me. 

Lime Surprise

As a beader, I've always shied away from fringing.  Don't know why - it's just one of those things that I've been fearful of.   In the last few months, I've got over my fear of it.
Another thing I've never done, is make individual bead embroidery elements and link them together... until now!  
Before Christmas, I bought some gorgeous vintage cabochons from a shop called Rosebudlia; she sells a beautiful selection of cabs and other goodies.  I decided to put these cabs to use for another beading first - joining embroidery elements.

I decided that five elements would look best, and surprisingly, I had the right colours in my stash, so this was quite a stash-buster too!

This is what the finished necklace looked like, and here is me wearing it - so you can see how it sits.

It's just my opinion, but when making a piece like this, involving no metal components in the design, the best way to finish it off is to make a beaded clasp.  I love beaded toggle clasps - and the circular motifs in this lend themselves to a toggle clasp.  

 This shows a close-up of the beautiful cabs I used - they reminded me of ammonites, and the little bits of glitter in them give them a bit of sparkle.

One other slightly odd thing about this piece is that I actually used bugles in it.  Usually I don't use them as they are often sharp at the ends and can cause threads to fray and break, but these matte ones are very nice, and they work well in fringing.

I'd love to hear what you think about this latest piece of beading... I'm very excited about it, and I'm looking forward to using this technique more.