Blue Bird Artbeads Resin Piece continued

I have continued working in right angle weave to complete a light, airy environment for Tania Hartman's lovely resin on silver bluebird. The beigy-yellow beads are the right angle weave base in which I periodically add selected pressed Czech glass leaves and flowers in blue. The pressed glass additions sometimes take the place of one of the right angle weave beads and sometimes are added on top of the right angle weave base. Every time I add a pressed glass element, I go through the element a second time with treads to stabilize it. I am using #10 fireline and a #12 needle. This makes it a little tight for some of the beads and I have learned just how hard I can pull the needle with a pliers to get it through a tight bead without breaking it. If I have to back out and go around a particular bead, I catch the thread next to the bead and continue on. If a hole appears, I cover it with a pressed glass piece. I always try to use the heaviest thread that a particular project will allow and if I were not adding the pressed glass pieces, I would have done the right angle weave with #8 fireline, but I feel that the heavier thread will support the projecting pieces better.

I usually try to avoid metal findings as I don't like the addition of metal in a clasp if it does not appear elsewhere in the piece. That is why I was so excited over the boro glass toggles that Artbeads offered. However, after seeing them, I felt that they were too big in scale for the delicacy of the bluebird and elected to go with a sterling clasp inset with a yellow citrine from Star's beads (www.starsbeads.com) instead. The bluebird does contain silver and the yellow citrine helps blend the clasp to the beads. Sometimes I will add silver (or gold, or brass) spacers or heishi beads in the beadwork itself if I know that I am going to use a metal clasp.

This is a very light piece due both to the lightness of the resin pendant and the openness of the right angle weave. I think it will complement a casual outfit as well as something dressy. I thank Artbeads for the opportunity to work with their selection of wares. I have not forgotten the boro toggles--they will be next on my to-do list. Joanne

Disclosure: The Tania Hartman Resin and sterling pendant was kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.