Sam in Wonderland

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland

Thus slowly, one by one,

Its quaint events were hammered out-

And now the tale is done,

And home we steer a merry crew,

Beneath the setting sun."

 The "slowly, one by one" part sounds a lot like beading, no?

Stay with me.  I want to show you a necklace that involves beading, Alice in Wonderland, and a "sleeve."

A sleeve is an armful of tatoo.  The ENTIRE arm, usually from shoulder to wrist.  This must seem like random information but it is pertinent because I have a beautiful niece (Samantha, an animal welfare technician for a humane society) with an Alice in Wonderland sleeve. Here is how it looked after her first session with the needle.  Her bravery is vastly superior to my own!

Do you see Alice, the cards, the catepillar and his hookah, and the edge of the white rabbit?

About this time, when the sleeve was in this stage, I found a cabochon from Sandy Spivey with Alice imagery.  I thought it would be perfect for Samantha, and bought it.

Now unfortunately, this particular imagery is by a different artist than Sam's sleeve.  This is a Arthur Rackham illustration, in my opinion, among his best.  Her sleeve uses the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel.  Lots of different artists have taken on the illustration work, including Salvador Dali, but the Tenniel ones are more popular and familar to most people.  I worried that she might consider this a clash, (of style or maybe values) but finally this fall, decided that I would make it up for her and let her decide if it was wearable.

I wanted to honor the barely colorized, sepia look of the cab, so chose muted colors from the cab itself.

I used a delicate matte gold 24k delica in the bezel and some hints of pink and bronze, with a dab of Miyuki Baroque pearls in the surrounding embellishment and the stringing.  I really enjoyed working with the superduos at the edge, but every effort I made with them in the yoke was very rigid and unpleasantly inflexible, so I finally decided that a strung yoke was the best way to encorporate everything I wanted .

I have to admit, I have lost track of the number of piercings in Samantha's ears, but I felt that two earrings would fill at least some of them, if she wanted to wear them, and bravely wire-wrapped cherry quartz points to suit the purpose.

Now, the sleeve is, I believe, complete and really pretty awesome.  It has super vibrant color, which my work lacks.

I know my feeble effort is quiet by comparison, but Sam seems to be pleased with it, and I was happy to do it for her.

If I get really lucky, some day, perhaps Sam will model the necklace for me and send me a picture!

Artichoke!

Steven Weiss of Beadsmith invited me to create using the new Miyuki Baroque beads and a beautiful Golem Cabochon.  I really enjoyed working with both, and am happy with my results!  There is an entire fB page devoted to this awesome Golem/Miyuki combination. and I invite you to view all the beatuiful design work here!

I loved the Golem cabochon, by Vladislav Ivanov, and (thanks to percise calibration on his part) I was able to begin with a most magical number in my bezel base row, 96, that divides evenly FOUR times and is also divide-able by 3, 4, 6 and 12.  I was in 7th heaven.  (Wonder why heaven is seventh?  Primes are abysmal beady numbers!)  So because it was possible to do so, I got totally carried away with that bezel, allowing the cab imagery to dictate my progress.  I think the result kinda blends with the cab to the point of visual question about where one ends and the other begins.  After I had played for a few rounds, I decided I would cover the through hole, and just feature the beadweaving and the gorgeous Golem graphics.

Then I created my strap, using a base of my favorite stitch triangle weave and embellishing with square stitch, and variations thereof.  I was happy to add a few super duo beads to the mix and  was really pleased with the Miyuki Baroque beads.  The texture is almost that of a Baroque pearl, and somehow makes it possible for the result to have both a relaxed and an elegant feel.  Pearls themselves are really hard to dress down, so what a great finish!

 

After working the strap, I wanted to add some of the drop components to the bezel, but didn't really want the focal piece to get bigger.  In playing with the embellishment, I discovered a way to make the drop components curl back over the cab, and the result looked like an artichoke to me, hence the name for the work!

 

 

I also loved the Golem maker's mark, and wanted to be sure it was visible in my end result, so here it is for you to see.  Now I need to go and shopping and find the perfect thing to wear with this for the Bead and Button show!  I think my little olive accent beads should inform that purchase!