Lessons Learned Part 452

Yes, I made up that number; it probably should be 452,000.

Current Work

I have started a tag for this blog called lessons learned.  These are not tutorials.  I am not even sure anyone reads these and if they do if these are not lessons everyone else has already learned and I am merely stating the obvious.  Nonetheless, I will continue.

Lesson I: Choices
If you recall when I last posted I was not sure if I was going to decrease or start over.  I ended up starting over.  The decrease showed too much thread and in order to get the bezel tight enough the depth of the bezel was going to cover up to much of the pretty stone. I stopped work before getting the bezel tight enough.  (See picture below.) These are judgments you will need to make as an artist.  I started over. 

Unfinished rejected work

Lesson II: Choices Again
Choosing beads requires more than just color consideration.  As was pointed out in comments, these satin beads tend to cut through thread, so they must be used in a place with little movement.  I chose to continue with the honey colored satin beads because of their color, their added textural impact, and because they are relatively large beads for seed beads.  The size will make it easy to attach the neck strap.  Because these are Czech beads the size is quite variable, which makes it easy to fit as a bezel.  In hopes of lessening the depth of the bezel and exposing more of the stone, I chose a single row of the honey satin beads in my second try.  Below is a picture of the edges of the two bezels.

Bezeled jasper on edge

The single row of the honey satin beads is much cleaner visually. 

Lesson III: You can always laugh at yourself
I am laughing at myself because the depth of the bezel is still going to cover up more of the stone than I would like. Fortunately, I did decide to embellish so I think that will justify the extra depth.  Here again are the two works in progress at a different angle.

Bezeled jasper side by side

Lesson IV: Take time off
I had a bit of a back ache last week and took time off to give my back time to heal.  Be kind to yourself.

I always thought my beading choices were intuitive, but they are not. I make choices based on what I hope to achieve.  I hope these lessons learned are helpful. 

Beautiful Failures

Cabbage Rose Bracelet

This is a finished Cabbage Rose bracelet.  Of all the things I have made over all the years I have been beading this ranks as one of my favorites.  This is based, very closely, on a pattern that can be found in the April/May 2007 issue of Beadwork.  I love the pattern.  I love how romantic the finished piece is.  I love the colors.  I love the embellishments. 

Cabbage Rose Detail

Having said all that, this piece is not wearable.

First, there is an issue with the weight of the piece.  When I planned this piece I bought a fairly substantial sterling magnetic clasp.  It was an etched square that matched the overall romantic aura of this piece.  Unfortunately since the piece is rather weighty the magnetic clasp did not hold. 

I am resourceful.  I bought a lobster claw clasp to replace the magnetic clasp.  As it turned out the bracelet was still to heavy.  It pulled my sterling clam shell, which attached the lobster clasp to the bracelet, out of shape.

Weight deformed clam shell on the Cabbage Rose bracelet

I really do love this bracelet and I would have bent this clam shell back into place until the metal was so fatigued it broke but that was not the only issue.

Cabbage Rose shedding

Did you notice that pink leaf on the right hand side of the picture?  This piece was woven with Nymo thread and for whatever reason the embellishments keep dropping.  Again, I can fix these losses as they occur.

What I cannot do is fix this bracelet permanently.  Each cabbage rose is made individually.  Rather than begin with a new thread, I used the tails to weave the cabbage rose to the peyote base.  I don't think I knotted the cabbage rose before using the tail ends to attach it to the base so I can't just clip them off. 

The clam shell is part of the woven peyote base.  I cannot just clip it off.  I could bend the metal and fatigue it until it breaks, but that would leave ugly exposed threads.  Plus, the bracelet is rather small and by the time I attached a new clasp it would be too large to wear.

I have avoided knots in the past as I saw them as a point of weakness.  Unfortunately, my integral weaving makes this bracelet unsalvageable.  The major lessons learned on this bracelet is to make use of piece work.  If each cabbage rose were knotted, I could salvage them and make a new base.

Nymo is great, I love the colors, I love the supple weave, but now I work with Fireline which seems to hold up better.

Side view Cabbage Rose

Even something well made and beautiful can be a failure. I have considered turning this into a hair barrette, but it is rather long.  I might be able to sew it to leather and attach it to a cuff; I have never made a cuff before.  What is most likely to happen is that some day I will remake this bracelet and plan appropriately.