Pearl Embrace Collar - Finished

I finished the necklace this afternoon. I do love bead work, even though I haven't done a great deal of it. The color, the texture of the beads, there is a richness and sensuality there that touches me. As with knitting, simple stitches yield wonderful complexity and beauty.

Materials:
- 136 Pearls, about 4.5 mm in diameter
- 3 grams size 11 seed beads (Beadcats stock # 2-11-437-14, bright gold opaque metallic)
- 3 grams size 15 seed beads (Beadcats stock # 2-14-438-70, 22kt gold electroplate on clear glass)
- 10 grams size 15 seed beads (Beadcats stock # 2-14-239-01, rose-gold iridescent)
- 23 flowers (Beadcats stock # N-F2-840-00, topaz transparent)
KO thread (gold)
clasp

Pearl Embrace Collar - Part II

Well, I just couldn't leave it alone. That's what tends to happen when I start beading. I've been known to stay up half the night. I tried the lavender beads and they just didn't pop, so I went back to my bead stash and looked at colors and settled on a rose-gold bead, and a gold-lined clear bead, and found some gold flowers that would work for embellishing. I also picked out some rose and gold drops. I'm not quite half-way done with the initial embellishment.

Pearl Embrace Collar

Playing around with the beads and pearls got me itching to do more, so I pulled out some recent bead magazines and flipped through them until I found this pattern in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Beadwork. The designer is Lisa Kan. I've finished the square stitch chain of size 11 beads and pearls and now need to do the embellishment. I'm thinking of using the pale lavender beads, along with the autumn spice beads, but I don't have the flowers I need, so I can't finish it this weekend. Maybe I should go find another bead project to start, or I could work on one of the two that I have in progress...


It is also the first snow-fall of the season. I love it, as long as I can enjoy it from indoors. This is the view from the deck looking into our woods.