Friday, February 06, 2009

For me



There are a lot of things I love about this necklace, but I'm not yet sure it's in its final form. I love the contrast between the shiny glass and the fuzzy spheres. I love the liquid look of the seed beads. I like the length.

I'm not sure exactly what I don't like about it -- I guess it'd be nice if it were a little longer. To double it up I have to use a twister clasp because it's too short to loop twice around my head. (And because I'm too cheap to buy an actual twister clasp, I fake it with a piece of wire, which is a little awkward and uncomfortable.) But I guess the main thing is that I've worn this piece several times and haven't received a single compliment. When I asked Sweetie what he thought of it, instead of answering he asked, "Do you like it?"

I have also seen people notice it and say nothing, which is a little awkward. I'm honestly OK with the knowledge that it's not everybody's style. This is my style, and I like it. What pricks my vanity a bit is wondering if my style is bad style.

Stylish or not, this was easy on the pocketbook. The fuzzy blue beads were a clearance rack find -- $1.00 for the strand. The red glass beads are vintage hand-me-downs from my husband's grandmother*. I used pricey 49 strand beading wire, but even with that my total cost was probably around $2.00.

*This deserves more than a footnote, but who knows when I'll get back to mentioning this? When my husband's grandmother died, my husband's brother saved her stash of costume jewelry (much of it broken) from the junk heap. He had no idea what to do with any of it, but he couldn't let such pretty things be tossed. Lucky for me, at some point he heard about my bead obsession, and I became the happy recipient of the whole stash. Eventually, I will use the parts to make pieces for all of the daughters and grand daughters on my husband's side. I like the idea of them all having a part of grandma's jewelry box.

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