Work in Progress: Ombre Lariat

The project underway on my bead tray this week took a long time to come together. I’m finally starting to move down the alphabet of Egyptian gods; when I got to H, for some lucky reason, I decided to do a little research on the god Heh, before starting in on the Nile deity Hapi. There are so many similarities in the characteristics of these gods, and I couldn’t decide which of the ideas floating through my head to use with each deity. Both have blues and greens, and natural elements. Heh is a frog, and Hapi is made of river plants. Any of the stitches and necklace styles I was thinking of would work for both.

When I thought of using a continuous ombre palette for Heh, things started to click together. This deity is the embodiment of infinity, so a pattern of blues and greens blending endlessly together seemed perfect. At first I wanted to do a necklace with no clasp, just one continuous chain of beadwork. Netting was my first choice, but then I wouldn’t be able to connect the ends for a seamless piece. So I started with a double spiral rope, with one side a color behind the other in the pattern. It was hideous. I took the beadwork apart and tried a plain spiral rope with a repeating pattern of accents at the center of each row. Terrible.

I finally had to give up on a piece that was connected end-to-end, and as soon as I did, the perfect idea came forward. A chevron chain lariat would provide the length I needed to really showcase the ombre palette, without using up outrageous amounts of each bead color. And I can finish the ends with some fun fringe. It’s taking a little longer than usual as I constantly rotate bead colors into my little cups and then replace them for the next color, but things are finally moving along.

Last week’s cuff bracelet came out really well. I had a long debate about whether I wanted to do a double clasp with such a wide edge to close, but I really didn’t want to go that route. I finally decided to add some extra heavy fringe to the ends and make them a little stiffer, so that they could support a single toggle.

What are you working on this week?

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