This necklace is made almost entirely of Bead & Buton
show purchases, and holds a special place in my heart. I had bought a 20mm bead of transparent frosted grey glass with an opaque white heart, from Beads Amour up in Indianapolis (incidentally, the most stylish bead shop I've ever been in, with a wonderful selection), and took it to the show with an idea to string it onto black silk with stitched beads to either side. But when I saw the spiral 'horn' beads from Bokamo Glass, I knew they were perfect next to the grey bead. Then I was at the Green Girl Studios booth (a must-stop every year; it's the single booth where I spent the most money!) and had to have a set of bead caps, which is a totally new design element for me. On my list of things to buy that I'd made beforehand and actually remembered to bring and check (imagine that--me, being practical while bead shopping!), was black silks of every sort. I extended that to 'neato black fibers' and thus bought my first-ever length of WireLace; a knit mesh tube of superfine wire. Upon getting home, I found I could not fit any of my silks through the grey bead's hole, even using a piece of tinfoil rolled up over the end of the silk as a needle. But the WireLace fit! After I positioned all my beads on the WireLace, I pulled and shaped the mesh until it was nice and wavy, then took a length of stiff beading wire and ran it in and out of the mesh so the weight of the beads would pull on the wire, not the WireLace. I finished the necklace with a handmade clasp. Note how the necklace can be worn two ways--streamlined with the 'horns' wrapped around the WireLace, and tough with the 'horns' pointing outward. This necklace turned out almost entirely unlike how I planned, but also exactly how I wanted!
