Holly's Folly Goldfish Necklace
Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass
My entry for the March 09 Art Bead Scene Contest, inspired by Henri Matisse's The Goldfish Painting.
I was shocked by all the bright colors in this month's inspiration painting, but upon reflection, knew I had the perfect beads... I had already made a series of Koi fish for a customer.
Since making the bead is the first hurdle to overcome in the monthly contest and I had several in existence, I felt ahead of the game and decided to try something a bit more elaborate jewelry - wise. The bright colors in the painting reminded me of bead crochet right away. I had longed to play with different shapes of beads and different sizes and this seemed the perfect piece to try that on.
As my luck would have it, I finished the necklace and was building the tassel and realized those koi I had made were way to big for the necklace. Working small is not my forte on the torch but I made three more tiny koi and they were just the right size.
The necklace is made of both metallic core and matte e-beads, 6 mm Swarovski crystals, Size 8 orange beads, and Czech pressed glass floral and leaf beads. All were hand strung to satisfy my strange brain's desire for "randomness" and crocheted on heavy cotton cord. Bali bead caps and sterling toggle clasp round out the basic necklace. I should mention I crocheted this with a 3 beads per round so this is much smaller diameter piece than I've made in the past.
The tassel is made on 19 strand beading wire woven through the necklace and crimped. The three art beads were worked in randomly and all ends were crimped for finishing.
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I have pieces of mine sitting on the kitchen counter... guess that doesn't count as an entry!
March 20, 2009 5:31 AM
I love the Koi fish! Beautiful work!
March 23, 2009 4:13 PM