And now for something different

My brain has been on fire since I came back from Bead & Button in Milwaukee in June. I learned to design with Right Angle Weave with both Marcia De Coster and Carol Wilcox Wells. I knew how to do RAW and had no trouble with my tension, but I was just doing flat pieces that did not excite my imagination at all. So after 4 days and classes with two great Masters, I want to do RAW all the time. I even find myself dreaming of the bead weaving patterns. I have been working up simple chains and bracelets using beads I have on hand including the large amount of cabochons I've picked up over the years. The rest of this week, I'm going to share some of my experiments.



Today is a piece I call Fandango. It is basically a RAW chain embellished with Magatamas. The actual fans are stone cabochons captured in RAW and then attached to the chain using RAW. The tricky part is in the actual attachment. You have to really keep your brain wrapped around the concept of three dimension to get it right. About the only thing I don't like about this necklace is that after wearing it for an hour, the fans seem to no want to remain spread out. I think to make me "happy" with this piece, I'm going to have to take off at least one of the fans and reattach it in a different spot. I wanted these to lay overlapping each other. The drawing board needs to be brought out and more experimenting to make sure this turns out the way that will make me pleased with it.