Digital Beading Magazine Issue 15 | Page 11

DBM: Firstly, we loved everything about your BOTB’14 piece – tell us about how it came to be. Was the clasp drape part of the original design? It’s stunning! ED: The best ideas always come from the beads and materials. I am a hoarder. I notice something nice in a shop – beadshop or fabric shop or any shop with nice shiny objects – and I just have to take it home. I’ve been buying most of my stash from the same wholesaler since I started beading – a loyal buyer for more than two decades – so, I can say they are responsible for a lot of my designs. It was the case with my BOTB pieces too. After working with colours that were way beyond the borders of my comfort zone in 2013, in 2014 I decided to lessen the stress factor and work with something I’m much more comfortable with. So, I hesitated between turquoise, blue and pink. When I went to the shop to pick up crystals they were out of blue rivolis, so I went what I could buy in all sizes - fuchsia. Fuchsia – in my head, at least – screams for metal colours. I couldn’t decide, as I love them all. So, I used them all - silver, gunmetal, light bronze, dark bronze and gold. I bought Size 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads in all of these colours too. The other beads I used were fire-polished beads (my all-time favs), Half Tila beads, O-beads, Swarovski bicones and daggers. Only the centre elements have a few different beads - rhinestone chain, spaghetti beads and a beautiful silver druzy cabochon. The elements were all experimental pieces - I tried different methods to bezel the rivolis using the Half Tila beads and other shapes. If I liked one, I started to clone them until I got really bored with it, then I was off to make something new. Except the three center pieces - the one in the middle on the top is a bead embroidery element with the druzy cab. It was just too thick to bezel it otherwise. The bottom drop with the daggers started out as a bezel for a nice crystal pear in a metal setting. It was more comfortable to work on it while the pear was not in the bezel. And, when I finished it and wanted to put in the crystal, I just did not like that in it. So I left it empty – and I loved it. I was building it up from this drop towards the neck. As usual, my daughter was not just the model but the manequin for the construction too - it is quite challenging for a teenager to sit still that long without complaining! But I needed to adjust and attach the elements very carefully so that they would sit nicely in the neck.