Hi all, I'm back from a lovely peaceful week on the Isle of Wight which included lots of beading time as well as fossils, red squirrels, beaches, lighthouses, Roman villas and cream teas
I have tried to catch up with all the posts but will admit to failing miserably... so I'm going to cheat a bit and give a general wave to everybody and say a big to all the latest creations, then cut to the chase and show you some pictures
Not many pictures, admittedly, because I've left out all the manky half-unpicked scraps of failed experiments - this was NOT my greatest and most productive beading week ever, and tested to the limit my mantra 'time spent beading is never wasted'!
Anyway I eventually managed to finish this

which was a big challenge as the vessel had no handles and the hole doesn't go all the way through either... I love the colours and the multistrand 'ribbon and yarn' effect but am a bit worried the focal is now drowned by the setting...
and this

which looks OK on, but in the photo the netted rope looks much too fat (Michele might recognize those pink Tohos though )
The lovely lampwork in both of these is by Les Nixon
Then I had a play with some weird and wonderful square coin pearls I impulse bought at Wincanton, and made a mosaic cuff

and spent ages finishing it... by putting a beautiful, carefully stitched peyote fastening loop... AT BOTH ENDS so had to fudge it with a double-ended clasp thingy and pretend it was intentional so the piece could be made into a choker on ribbon as well as a cuff
Finally had a play with a daisy chain in size 8's (don't ask me why!) and a gorgeous old coat button of my mum's from the family button box - this one has a fudged fastening too, as any loop big enough to fit over the button is big enough to gape horribly, as I found out after I'd stitched the button in place so there is a cheat's tiny button and loop hidden behind the big one

I am hoping that I have now got back into my stride and that this week's gremlins are firmly behind me - and in a spirit of optimism have submitted all of the above to Beadwork in the hope that they won't realize that all of them are cockups and bodges to a greater or less extent!

Glad you had a good holiday Lynne, they are all gorgeous as ever! I love the second one most but they are all amazing .

They're all gorgeous Lynne!

It looks as if you had a good holiday, then, resting, snoozing, putting your feet up, reading.....all the usual stuff

I love everything - but am utterly in love with the top one and its multi-strands - I can see why you might worry that the focal is a bit lost but it doesn't look it - it is set off perfectly by the colours and textures you've put together.
I have never seen a multi-strand beaded "ribbon and yarn" before - is it a Nemeton discovery, do you think? It's stunning

I think I like it - have you noticed?

I agree with Carrie - I love the vessel - ribbon one. I think it looks really seaweedy, and you should be very happy with it

Glad you had a good holiday!

Love them all, as usual but particularly the mosiac one, really grabbed my eye

Vickie

It's lovely to see some of your creations again Lynn, they are always so interesting. I like the first one best but the others are lovely too, you have matched up all the colours beautifully.

Di

Love all of them. I clearly don't have the right kind of clothes as none of my buttons would inspire me to make such a stunning choker.

Absolutely love what you've done with the lampies - I wouldn't have a clue what to do with a vessel!

And the cuff looks brilliant, great use of those squares.

Glad to hear you had a good holiday, Lynn.

I'm LOVING that cuff - what amazing pearls. Of course, all the other pieces are fab too...

Wow, I love the first one, I've never seen anything like it before. I wonder why no one else has done it before because the result is so pretty.

Having done it, I know exactly why
Among other things... it's a crazy idea, it looks like a pile of cr*p until you've almost finished it, it's nearly all size 15's so it takes ages and drives you mad, fixing the peyote round the vessel neck is needle-breakingly fiddly and it takes two hours to figure out how to get it all the right size and stay put and then fix the handles on, then there is the question of how to knot two thread ends invisibly into a square-stitched loop of size 15's, then once you've finished one strand of necklace you have to start again and make two more (one more just isn't enough), the different stitches stretch by different amounts so it takes forever to get them even nearly the same length, and then you have three strands of stuff you have no idea how on earth to finish off as you can't exactly knot them or stick them in a crimp, so you have to spend another happy couple of hours beading a beadcap that sort of works, and then remember what you did and bead another matching beadcap and work out how to fix the clasp bead to the top... NOT exactly the easiest stitching job in the world...
... but don't tell the Beadwork editors I said so, or at least not until after they've rejected it!

Well, excluding the vessel bit it doesn't sound too bad... the vessel looks enormously fiddly. I suspect that if I'd had the idea for the strands and been crazy enough to attempt it () I'd have taken the easy route and done tubular herringbone flowers for the caps for the ends of the strands- not as elegantly tapered but easy to make two the same!

... actually... the challenge sounds quite tempting!

They all look fabulous, Lynn. As always.

The vessel isn't overpowered at all, it's very visible. Gorgeous and love the others too.

Ooh gorgeous work Lynn! I have to say the top one is my favourite, I like the spiky strand winding it's way around. And I love the piece even more now I've read how complicated it was