Finishing

I have rarely had completion problems. When I start a project I usually have a picture of the whole thing in my head and a pretty good idea what I intend to do so I can wear it as soon as possible.

But when Tom Holland visited us in August, and I spent the better part of a day with him, he gave me a bead I had been repeatedly going back to and picking up. It was a thank you for our hospitality and I took it, giving him the promise I would make something special to feature the bead. The bead sat on the coffee table in front of me for the better part of a month and I kept looking at it, admiring its shiny blackness and the sparking white bursts adorning it. I loved the bead for itself and didn’t want to screw it up. Tom had admired my viking knit necklace and I told him I’d likely use the bead in a VK necklace.

So I took some dead soft 26 ga sterling silver wire and created two long, curved chunks of viking knit to frame the bead. That was in September. The parts sat in a bag while I collected end caps, different clasps and thought about what to do with the back of the choker. Finally, while tidying up my bead stash this morning, I came across all the pieces I’d been considering and looked at my bead board covered with sterling silver jump rings and I sat down and put this piece together in less than half an hour.

I think Tom will be happy with it. I emailed him a picture of it already. So for my blog readers, here it is — I guess it begs the name “The Firecracker!” I think I’ll be wearing it a lot. I don’t think I can bear to give it away when I love the bead soooo much.