Little Goddess Clay Face Cabochon Beaded Necklace

Little Goddess cabochon clay face is getting all dressed up!

This is about where I left off yesterday on the clay face cabochon necklace. Isn't she sweet? She's a pleasure to work on. I need a name for her, what should it be? The spiral on her forehead indicates that her third eye is open, so I'm sure she's a goddess of some sort...do you think she's sleeping, or meditating? She emanates a very peaceful vibe. I've decided to call her Little Goddess.

My studio and Little Goddess in progress

Today the weather was gorgeous so I had both windows open to the breezes and sunshine while I worked. You can see that I use books for reference, but I never copy the designs - I just use them to learn which stitches I need to use. I sat down around noon and finished for the day at about 11 p.m. Took a break to walk the pups and have dinner with my wonderful husband. I'm such a hot date on a Saturday night...lol. 

I listened to a 24-hour marathon of Murder She Wrote last night and today. I love that show! Great stories, very corny. Today one of the episodes had them working on a computer and they were using DOS. If you don't know what that is, count your blessings, if you do, you're probably about my age and you have my sympathies for having to learn DOS : ) I love noticing the technologies in the old television shows - the honkin' cordless phones, the phone booths, the huge computers. Ah progress is GOOD. But I digress...

Almost finished with this part!

So this is where I am now. She has a soft tan suede leather backing, a sweet little seed bead border, and the hanger is ready for a Russian spiral necklace - haven't ever done that before, but was looking at how to do it in one of my bead books last night and I think it will be beautiful. Tomorrow I'll finish the other half of the fringe and go for the necklace.

This fringe is interesting. I'm using about 6 yards of thread just for the fringe, and starting from the center, so have wound up half of it and sewn the right-hand side with the other 3 yards. The thread is magnificent - doesn't tangle at all. It's silky, but not too slippery, so it holds a knot very well. I don't put many knots in my work, but I like to make sure it's very strong and stable, so a few in strategic places. 

So far I've spent about 20 hours on her, but this is my first one like this, so it takes longer to learn. The time includes choosing the beads, and I don't know which part I like to choose the most - the colors that surround her face, or the background, or the fringe. The fringe on any of my pieces is always exciting because I usually do it last, and it's very satisfying to finish : )

She will go to the Green Drake Gallery for sale when done, but I'll also do some for my Etsy Dreamkeeper Creations shop. Stay tuned, I'll upload a photo of her when she's done - and this time I'll take her outside where the sun helps me capture her beautiful colors much better.

Namaste!
Jen

Wow I'm loving this new style of beaded cabochon necklace!

New beaded cabochon necklace

I bought some exquisite cabochons - which are flat sided large beads or clay faces or dichroic jewels, and have started to make some beautiful necklaces with them. Wow it's so much fun! These are one of a kind pieces - no one else will have anything like it.

This one is about two inches long at this point. She's glued onto Lacy's Stiff Stuff which takes the beading like magic. She'll have beading all over the white part, a really nice border, some gorgeous fringe, and a braided seed bead necklace. She'll be a long necklace, somewhere between 24 and 30 inches depending on what seems to work best.

She'll go to the Green Drake Gallery for sale in a couple of weeks, one of my higher ticket items. So far I've put in about 4 hours, and it'll be a lot more til she's done. Time very well spent - yay! 

You know what I'm doing for the next several days...and I am looking forward to making some more for you - these are really special. Let me know what you think!

Namaste!

Jen