Arabesque

I recently received a copy of Japanese Beadwork with Sonoko Nozue published by Lark Crafts.  I actually have met Sonoko because of my sister (co-owner of Beadcats) and like the Japanese aesthetic.  The book had been sitting in my stack waiting to be shelved, and when I was sorting the stack the other day I accidentally put it in the pile of knitting books.  When I spotted it later I pulled it out and flipped through it and decided to do some beading.  This necklace is my take on the first project in the book.  The project is titled Cheerful Midafternoon and is more muted in the color choices.  Here are the beads called for:

Size 11 triangle beads
Size 11 3-cut beads
Czech lily beads (5 or 6 mm)
Size 15 beads
Bicones (5 mm)

The project called for 3-cut beads, and I have plenty in my stash, most acquired when I was first getting into beading some 30 years ago now and was attracted to the glitter, but I wanted something different so I pulled a bag of iridescent beads out of my stash.  I am pretty sure that they are size 11, and they are probably Czech.  They have no stock number on them, but they are dark purple with glints of peach, teal, green and gold.  For the triangle beads I selected lavender transparent with teal luster finish.  I have a fairly decent selection of bicones and I pulled out both teal and peach, and ended up going with the teal.  The only beads that I did not have in my stash were the Czech lilies.  The ones that Beadcats offers are a bit bigger than the ones used in the pattern.  I ordered both peach and lavender.  They came yesterday so this morning when I got up I started on the necklace.

The necklace is built up in layers.  First the lavender lilies, then the peach lilies.  Here is an in progress shot.  you can see my work table.  It is a folding TV dinner table.  We use them in the booth at Bead & Button and one year I forgot them so I had to buy more, which meant that I now have extras which have found their way into the house and into use.  I have my little folding Ott light and my watercolor trays for my beads.  After you finish with the second layer of lilies the instructions call for you to add the picots and join them, finishing up with the bicones.  I decided to work my way up through the layers and did the bicones next.  It really stabilized the piece and I think it made adding the picots easier.

After finishing up the bicones I added the picots.  When it came time to join the picots the pattern actually varies the number of beads between each picot.  I decided to use the same number of beads (I settled on 7 based upon a quick calculation of finished length) and I also decided to string them on Soft Flex instead of beading thread and used one of the clasps that I picked up at Bead & Button from A Grain of Sand.

Materials:
Size 11 purple iridescent Czech seed beads (< 20 g)
Size 11 triangle beads (34 beads), Beadcats stock #1-11-597-02 (lavender transparent with teal luster finish)
Size 14 seed beads to go with the Czech lilies, Beadcats stock #s 2-14-130-01 (blush pink transparent irid) and 2-14-773-01 (lt lavender transparent irid)
Czech lilies - pressed glass - Beadcats stock #s N-F7-114-00 (darker peach transparent, 66 beads) and N-F7-776-00 (lavender transparent, 33 beads)
Bicones - pressed glass - Beadcats stock # P-R1-594-00 (medium blue-green transparent, 33 beads)
KO thread in purple
Soft Flex 925 Sterling Silver Extreme Flex Metallic Flex Wire (Fine)
Box clasp