Hello, Natasha!

I'm speaking to one of my newest beadwoven creations. No, I haven't lost my mind (well, okay, some people might debate that). But this newest piece really does have a personality.

The Natasha Necklace began with a wonderful polymer clay bead made by Dee (aka Malodora). I saw a bunch of these beads when she posted them to her Flickr photostream, and I immediately fell in love with them. And then I had to have some for myself (you can see more about the Natasha beads here). Ever since they arrived, I've been looking at them. I put them all into a little container, but just about every day I have to take a few of them out and turn them slowly so I can admire all their sides.

After staring at them for all that time, I eventually had an idea for how to use one of them. The one in the pictures, although it's by no means the brightest one in the bunch, was the one talking to me the most. Maybe it's because it has such interesting colors -- lavender, lime green, peach, and red, with a touch of black that accentuates all the lighter colors.

The idea was to use the four main colors and create an ndebele rope in each so I could braid them together. I figured the diameter of the finished braid would be a nice size for a bracelet and would go well with the beads.

That was the plan.

What wasn't part of the plan was that I had no idea how long to make the ropes. I'm pretty good at math, but there was just no way for me to figure out how much of the length would be taken up in the braid. A tight braid would use more of the length, a loose braid less of it. So I guesstimated.

And I came pretty close. If I'd used a tighter braid it probably would have worked. But I didn't like the "feel" of the tight braid when I was finished.

Now the dilemma. My braided section was too long to use as a bracelet.

Dang.

Not one to dismantle pieces after they're finished (quite a task when you take into consideration just how much effort I put into making sure things don't come apart accidentally!), I had to figure out some other way to use that beautiful bead.

I have quite a good stash of mismatched, funky, interesting beads that are all waiting for a "home" in something. Since I don't do any stringing, they have to sit around and wait for me to do something freeform; and I don't really do much of that! (Have I mentioned that there's just not enough time?!?!?)

So I dug out the stash and located some beads I thought would complement the Natasha bead and that would make an interesting necklace! To tie the two sides of the asymmetrical necklace together, I made up some beaded tube beads using the same beads I used for the ropes to go between the glass, stone, and crystal beads I found in my stash.

And although this didn't end up being ANYTHING like what I had planned, I love it!

I guess I'm just an asymmetrical kind of person.
:-)