At the beginning of 2020, I moved most of my beading supplies out of my kitchen. In the process (of course, and no surprise to fellow beaders) I discovered a few things I had forgotten about. Among those were some bags of maybe 30 stone focal beads from making kits for Caramel's Claws Necklaces. I buy those beads in groups of five, and usually find at least one of the five that does not meet my quality and/or aesthetic criteria for use in a particular kit. But some of them are interesting and beautiful in their own right.
In a happy accident, Cheryl bought a Caramel's Claws kit just at the moment I had those bags of extras sitting on my desk. So I added one of them to her order that I thought might be a possible alternate to the focal she had purchased.
She was very kind and wrote a sweet thank you message. After making her original (mostly) as the tutorial suggested, she used the second focal and her own very good design skills to make several changes. She turned the stone to a vertical orientation, used Delicas instead of Aikos, adapted the pattern to suit the slightly smaller size of the Delicas, and arranged the strung portion in a more interesting pattern to reflect some unique properties in her focal.
I like her result so much that I am sharing it here with you. But first a reminder of my original, horizontal Caramel's Claws orientation.
As you can see, this focal stone had quite a bit of several shades of pink. Cheryl said she wanted the piece to be "pretty, but not sweet" given the pink in the stone. I really like the crescents she chose, as well as the coppery 6/0 beads she used in her stringing. They give the piece a look of antique bronze and support the warmth in the blue grey stone. and I love the pink quartz in the stringing too. For me, perfectly pretty without the sweetness. And I love that there is just a hint of it, instead of many repetitions, in nice sympathy to the focal bead.
Now to the modifications Cheryl used in the bezel. She knew Delicas to be just slightly smaller than Aikos, so added 4 beads to her base row. Wow! Perfect, because given this large a base row, bead size could make a substantial difference to the fit of the bezel. I have done the pattern with Delicas, and it works alright, but I must focus on loosening my tension throughout, and this bezel already is a snug one, and must be woven with a light touch to begin with. You all know that she had to add a pair of beads, not just one, because this is Peyote. But she also could not have added just a pair, because of the mirror symmetry. No matter which way you divide this bezel in half, whether vertically or horizontally, both sides must be the same. (Hmmmm... well MAYBE, you could have the top different from the bottom, but it would be a challenge, and instead of 6 crescents, you would likely need 5 or 7. But even then... I'd have to chart to be sure.) So clever Cheryl added 4 beads, but then found her bezel a bit loose. So she took advantage of the fact that this focal is a bead with a hole, and ran her thread through it to stabilize her work.
I am always so pleased when beaders do something unique with my patterns, and this is an excellent example. My kudos to Cheryl for her neat adaptation of my Caramel's Claws pattern. Caramel, my sweet squirrel friend, was impressed too, and asked for extra peanuts to celebrate!
In a happy accident, Cheryl bought a Caramel's Claws kit just at the moment I had those bags of extras sitting on my desk. So I added one of them to her order that I thought might be a possible alternate to the focal she had purchased.
She was very kind and wrote a sweet thank you message. After making her original (mostly) as the tutorial suggested, she used the second focal and her own very good design skills to make several changes. She turned the stone to a vertical orientation, used Delicas instead of Aikos, adapted the pattern to suit the slightly smaller size of the Delicas, and arranged the strung portion in a more interesting pattern to reflect some unique properties in her focal.
I like her result so much that I am sharing it here with you. But first a reminder of my original, horizontal Caramel's Claws orientation.
And now, please say hello to Cheryl and her beautiful necklace!
As you can see, this focal stone had quite a bit of several shades of pink. Cheryl said she wanted the piece to be "pretty, but not sweet" given the pink in the stone. I really like the crescents she chose, as well as the coppery 6/0 beads she used in her stringing. They give the piece a look of antique bronze and support the warmth in the blue grey stone. and I love the pink quartz in the stringing too. For me, perfectly pretty without the sweetness. And I love that there is just a hint of it, instead of many repetitions, in nice sympathy to the focal bead.
Now to the modifications Cheryl used in the bezel. She knew Delicas to be just slightly smaller than Aikos, so added 4 beads to her base row. Wow! Perfect, because given this large a base row, bead size could make a substantial difference to the fit of the bezel. I have done the pattern with Delicas, and it works alright, but I must focus on loosening my tension throughout, and this bezel already is a snug one, and must be woven with a light touch to begin with. You all know that she had to add a pair of beads, not just one, because this is Peyote. But she also could not have added just a pair, because of the mirror symmetry. No matter which way you divide this bezel in half, whether vertically or horizontally, both sides must be the same. (Hmmmm... well MAYBE, you could have the top different from the bottom, but it would be a challenge, and instead of 6 crescents, you would likely need 5 or 7. But even then... I'd have to chart to be sure.) So clever Cheryl added 4 beads, but then found her bezel a bit loose. So she took advantage of the fact that this focal is a bead with a hole, and ran her thread through it to stabilize her work.
I am always so pleased when beaders do something unique with my patterns, and this is an excellent example. My kudos to Cheryl for her neat adaptation of my Caramel's Claws pattern. Caramel, my sweet squirrel friend, was impressed too, and asked for extra peanuts to celebrate!
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