I have always
said that I was inspired to bead by all that is around me. Whether
my inspiration has come from the tale of a famous person, real
or imagined, or from historical art and jewelry, my work has
always been woven through these muses. Rarely, though, am I inspired
to design and bead by current events.
In October 2007,
thousands of Southern Californians fought their way through one
of the worst fire seasons to date. As with all of the victims,
we also have walked away from this disaster with our own stories
of trial and tribulations, victory and defeat.
Our mountain
suffered terribly, once again, but as this mountain has been
through this many times, it will rebuild. One of the two fires
raged on, refusing to be contained. The heroes in this disaster,
the fire fighters, called it “The Slide”. Deeply forested,
rough, high mountain terrain coupled by difficult water approaches
and high winds, kept our heroes from gaining the upper hand.
My inspiration
to name this lovely necklace, “The Slide”, came from
the images of the fires, the once beautiful mountainous terrain
and water. The 3-D, peyote stitch ring, representing the shape
of the fire, is embellished with Brick Stitch triangles and crystals.
The triangles represent our mountains, the crystals between them
the trees. From the ring, two Peyote stitch connections allow
the many strands of seed beads, crystals and small metal spacers
to flow around the neck, then through a slide on the other side
of the ring. The strands flow like water, to end in a beautiful
cascading fringe.
Skill Level: Intermediate to advanced.
Must be familiar with tubular and flat Peyote stitch, as well
as, Brick stitch.
