New necklaces

Just finished knotting these new necklaces this week. Cyndi gave me the silver & enamel beads years ago, and it took me a long time to figure out how to set them off best.

Then I saw that the hexagonal-cylinder sodalite beads I'd picked up somewhere would alternate perfectly with them, added other sodalite and amazonite leftover beads, to pick up from the enamel colors that I wear. And I found the perfect clasp.

Usually I use handmade hooks, and make the length adjustable with beads. This time I wanted the necklace longer, so I could see it too, and since I was using the clasp, lengthened it with chain.

When I was taking a design class in the art department a few years ago, I suggested to the teacher, at the end of the course, that she use a string of beads as a basic design exercise. Design classes start with 2 dimensional design, and just black & white. Here's one-dimensional design! (She was worried about the expense for students - but there are wooden beads.) You certainly use the design principles of unity and variety, and elements of rhythm and repetition and contrast. In fact, bead design is seemingly simple, but really quite sophisticated.

That's when I knotted up the green necklace, to go with a color of green I was beginning to wear. I was just starting to think of jewelry again after a break. My design abilities had grown during the fallow season, as often happens. Didn't finish it until just this week.

I wore this every day for a year

Well, nearly everyday. I made it in a jewelry class. Every Saturday morning I'd drive down to Rocklin for an all morning class. I'd work out in the garage every night after work, until by about Thursday I'd get stuck, at a point where I didn't know how to go on. Then on Saturday morning, the teacher (Nancy Foster, a truly excellent teacher) would set me on the path again. It took about a month.

I loved it and it went with almost all my clothes. Well, I chose clothes to set it off. But it was designed to go in an open-necked shirt. That's why the chain around the back. It sat up off my neck, and felt very light. It was very comfortable to wear.

But it had a design flaw; the narrow point right next to the flower was too narrow, and bent too easily. Someday it would break. I stopped wearing it every day, and kept it for special occasions, to extend its life.

Then a few years ago it was stolen. I'm sure that whoever bought it at a flea market from the drug-addict/alcoholic thief didn't know, although perhaps one could guess about a purchase from such a source. Anyway, it probably broke the first time someone tried to wear it.

There's no chance I could make one again. Well, it had a short life, but it was loved more than most pieces of jewelry, probably.

You never know who someone is in their secret life

I never *got* Halloween. From my medievalist years I had lots of costumes, and loved an opportunity to wear them. But they would always ask what I was. "The Snow Queen? Lady Night?" "Huh? I'm just me. Twelfth century, daughter of a country knight. One new outfit a year. It's part of what I do to make the new clothes for everyone in the household." "Huh?"

Then when I worked outdoors in the nursery, after a couple of years of trailing my (washable tourney) hems through the mud, one year I thought I'd wear this. Easy. Everyday clothes, uniform shirt, and my pierced circlet. I was hoping for some double-takes.

One gentleman customer asked me who I was. "Oh, just me. What I wear everyday. You never know who someone is in their secret life." I'm not sure if he had seen the circlet, or not until I walked away. It's even funnier that way.

Everyone is the hero of their own story.