June Monthly Bead Challenge

Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilperic," 1895-96
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901)
Oil on canvas. 145x149cm

This month's Art Bead Challenge was a real collaboration between mom and I.  I really wanted to add a copper enameled pendant to the piece, since that is what mom and I really like to focus on.  Mom sketched up a dress for the design, and she sawed the dress out of copper.  I then enameled the dress pendant and made the lampwork glass beads (floral beads and spacer beads).  Mom came up with the necklace design and strung most of the beads and seed beads.  I helped at the end by adding the last of the seed beads and crimping the necklace to a clasp (mom hates to crimp).

The one thing I need to improve upon is measuring.  Mom had the idea of wrapping the seed bead strands around the main string of beads, to make it look like the ruffle of a dress; but I cut the wire too short (I thought I made it long enough).  Mom knows my challenge of not measuring and she dealt with the short wires and made the necklace work (we hate stringing seed beads or we would have done a "do over").  Overall I am really happy with how the necklace turned out.  This months challenge reinforced how well mom and I work together.  Mom is the bomb!

Full Necklace

Close up of floral beads

Close Up of dress