Spyder

 

My latest project: Spyder! Credit for the design goes to... *checks magazine* Mikki Ferrugiaro, as published in the Dec/Jan issue of Beadwork magazine. Though I love magazine designs, usually I use them as inspiration, a jumping-off point for my own original designs. Rarely do I see a project that makes me want to simply replicate it, much less actually get around to executing it, but this was one such design.

 

Though it looks complicated and multilayered, the 'pleats' in the wing sections are achieved by strategic use of bead size. Mind you, this IS a more advanced piece--I wasn't sure how exactly to do everything when I started the project. For example, I didn't understand how to gather the pleats at one end, or how to connect the round part to the wing parts. Once I started, I somehow understood how to gather, but never did figure out how the magazine said to connect the wing parts, so I had to make up my own.

 

I made other slight alterations: using 15s instead of delicas on the straps, substituting a shimmerstone for a rivoli, modifying the bezel around the shimmerstone, and embellishing it further. 

My mother remarked upon seeing it that it looked 'a little like a spider', which delighted me to no end, as spiders make me think of one of my new favourite movies: Megamind. There's a part in which Megamind tries to threaten 'the girl' Roxanne with various ridiculous implements, but it ends when she blows a spider onto his face. He also pronounces 'spider' differently, turning the long i sound into more of a y sound.