create a necklace with a new look.
One of my off and on interests for about the past ten years has been making bead jewelry. You can only have so much jewelry, so I have given it as gifts and even sold a little at a neighborhood garage sale. Given an opportunity this spring, I volunteered to teach basic bead stringing to a small group of women at a retirement center. We had a grand time.
My students were eager to learn any techniques I presented to them. We made a stretch bracelet, earrings for pierced ears and a necklace. Almost every woman brought in broken jewelry that had belonged to a grandmother or an aunt. They wanted to restring and put the jewlery back together. Some of it was quite beautiful. There was not enough class time to restring beads that were separated with tiny knots, which was the style of most of what was brought in. Maybe next time, I can try a class in jewelry repair.
I will have to improve my own skills to do that, but that gives me a reason to keep learning. I have taken the easy way out mostly and continued to make the same style and type of jewelry repeatedly. I do enjoy the challenge of designing jewelry even if it is put together in the same old way. I want to learn to combine beads with wire and to repair those aforementioned broken pieces. So, more about jewlery will appear on this blog in the future. My thanks to my class at Glenmoor for several hours of fun and good fellowship.
Attaching a clasp to a necklace.
Our work table with arrary of tools and beads.
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