A Necklace a Day - One

Back in June, I challenged myself to make one ring a day for 30 days, to help me achieve my goal of 100 active listings in my Etsy shop. Now I’m getting ready to set up my ArtFire studio, and I thought I’d take another 30 day creative journey to get things started.

I created the first necklace just for myself, to go with my Halloween costume. For most of this year, I had planned to go as Catwoman. Because my bead helper is head-over-heels obsessed with Batman, his costume choice was pretty obvious. I decided to dress up with him as Catwoman because she’s the easiest to copy in a mom-appropriate way.

My partner thought it would be better if we went as Joker and Harley Quinn, and I didn’t disagree. Harley is my all time favorite Batman character. Unfortunately, there was no way I’d have the time or talent to sew my own black and red body suit, and the Arkham Asylum version of Harley is a bit too…vivacious, for me.

So I started looking around on Etsy for some cool Catwoman masks that I could use to add some authenticity to whatever cat costume I could throw together. I came across a fantastic leather shop called Nokturnel Eclipse, and discovered an amazing array of fantasy character masks - including Harley Quinn. I was instantly sold, and vowed I would find a way to make the costume work.

I decided that it would be perfectly alright to make up my own Harley Quinn costume, using pieces from my own wardrobe, and I had a pretty great black and red outfit in mind. To make sure that there was no doubt about who I was dressing up as, I made a little necklace with a harlequin pattern beaded bead.

I used peyote stitch in black and white to make the diamond pattern, then strung it with more seed beads and some black-white druks. I ended up making the beaded tube way too big, and before I could string everything, I had to go back and cinch up the ends with picots and circular peyote.

We decided that as adults, we could get away with just painting our faces, so I was happy to have the extra accessory. My new mask totally made the costume come together, and I can't wait to wear it and the necklace again next year.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading, Nokturnel Eclipse,
Bruce Timm, Eidos Interactive Ltd.