Bringing the story up to date

Well after rather a long gap these are my next two pieces. The first started out with the intention of being another necklace but ended up as a brooch.

As you can see it has a button at the centre fixed with a bead and going out from it I have tried to be quite symmetrical, working with loops of beads which are then couched down.

The base is almost flat felt, although in two layers, but the tension of the sewing brings the centre up and the outer edge down. Because this is for my own use I fix it with a safety pin from the back of whatever I'm wearing.

I am intending to explore brooches further and to experiment more with shapes and different fixings.

The last necklace I made is also the most successful so far, I think, as I have learned lessons about where to place the beaded piece on the i-chord. I am very fond of the colours too and think it works well with a large central bead.

I used bugle beads round the centre to add height and cover the 'step' between one piece of felt and the other two. The basic shape this time was a rectangle to echo the centre so that going 'round' became going straight and round corners.

This shot gives a good impression of the height of the whole and also of the way in which I have used different sizes and shapes of beads, almost at random, bur all within the same colour palette.



I am working on another large piece at the moment which may become another brooch. One of the things I need to think more about is size - at the moment everything I do seems to end up larger than I first intended, although perhaps subconsciously I want to make a really bold statement! When I have more to show I'll be back here again.