Freeform peyote neckpiece. I really don't even know what to call this. It's not a necklace. It's an exercise in obsession. Hundreds and hundreds of beads peyote stitched together to form a really long (59", to be exact) ribbon of beads.

I used all different kinds of beads in here -- seed beads in white, pink, orange, yellow, gold, red, salmon, and silver; bugle beads; imitation elongated pearls; some iridescent larger beads. I went through lots of beads putting this together, and the patterns are as varied as the beads themselves.

I wanted to make sure it had some irregularities to it, so while most of the beads are size 11s, I mixed in some larger and some smaller ones so the piece has some movement.

The obsessive compulsive in me wishes I'd kept track of how many beads were used. Since I didn't do that, I'll have to be satisfied with just an estimate... 14 beads per row, approximately 14 rows per inch, 59 inches = 11,564 beads. Since there are some larger beads in the mix, I'll round it down to 11,000. That's a LOT of beads!!! Especially when you consider that every bead was woven in one at a time.

Whew.

This was a lot of fun, though, even though it took many hours to complete (I didn't keep track of that either). Maybe I'll do another one in shades of blue... or purple... or green... :-)

Yin and Yang is what I decided to call this bracelet, made from some gorgeous Czech seed beads in a brilliant purple and an icy steel blue.

Beads Beads Beads. I have millions of them, and since I'm planning to attend the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee in early June, I just have to make use of some of them before then. I've made a few bracelets, but I haven't gotten them all photographed to list on Etsy yet. This green zigzag one is fun, I think.

It looks like I'm going to be doing a big craft show in Evanston, Illinois, this summer (Custer's Last Stand), so I'll have to have some things made up to take with me there. The bracelets will be a nice addition to my inventory, and they're a lot of fun to make.