Making Stuff

For her birthday Delia got this sweet jewelry model/stand, and since she's in bed I figure it is ok if I use it to display the cool necklaces I made tonight after supper. Way back when we went to the Gem and Mineral show, I spent a silly little bit of fun money on some spectacular beads. Specifically a $15 dollar string of what the bead guy called Spiderweb Agate. It was the only one of it's kind on the table, and I was absolutely smitten. I walked past it about 4 times before I bought it, and also a couple of teardrop agate pendants and another string of rather less exotic beads. So it has been something like 6 weeks since then, and tonight I finally got around to making some necklaces.
Delia was kind enough to loan me her tool kit and some stringing wire and findings (which of course I bought for her with the money I make slaving away in the bread mines, but from her point of view once things leave my hands they are altogether hers. At least she shares with me. :) The one at the top of the post is the Spiderweb Agate, interspersed with some nondescript little black beads from Michaels arts and crafts. They had a ridiculous sale there a couple of weeks ago, and Delia and I had a blast picking out beads and Halloween decorations and random stuff at 50% off.
This agate teardrop came from the Gem and Mineral Show, but all the rest of the beads came from Michaels. You wouldn't think stringing beads would be very difficult, but you would be wrong. I can sit here for three hours at a stretch and knit complicated cable patterns, but this string of beads had me fiddling around at my wit's end. Luckily Keith opened a bottle of Winking Owl Cabernet Sauvignon, and things got considerably easier. Truth be told, I am not much of a wine drinker, but for $2.69 a bottle I can afford to get a little practice in.

It was a hoot to get out of Knit Mode for an evening and play around in another crafty medium. I dug my old beading stuff out of the attic and my daughter was quite impressed, she had NO IDEA that I had any jewelry making experience. I think she will find something to do with the box of gemstone beads that have been sitting around since, oh, she was born! So I give her the iolite and moonstone and she gives me another three uninterrupted hours to work on Pippa's One Year Sweater. I think it will be a good trade.