BEADWORK THROWDOWN!

Well, its done. I conceived and executed a fine piece of jewelry, inspired by the generous helping of beads and the gorgeous large lace agate cabochon that Catherine King, my Swap Angel(and doesn't it sound like the title of a song;Swap Angel, I love you so much) I chose to take inspiration from Maggie Meister's book "Classical Elegance" and attempted another bead embroidery because Catherine King is so accomplished in it and I wanted this piece to have a lot of her influence and I wanted to try again a technique that had always foiled me in the past. I think I this time I did a creditable job, finally my needle started to find the right places to go and I really enjoyed doing the bead and pearl edging on it. I did make a mistake, I cut my first piece of suede backing the wrong way. Luckily I had some more. As for the retable, whose design I took from "classical Elegance;
the Lakshmi Pendant, while I used the basic design, I also used the techniques I have learned from Kate McKinnon's Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. Her new techniques are capable of changing the way beadwork is done, making complex pieces that might be beyond the skill of a beader or that might take a much longer time, very accessible.  More people should look into her techniques, the new peyote starts, the exploding round and the elegant guide round being three of the most useful. So new beadwork techniques meet old style beadwork to make what I think is one classy piece
However I wasn't able to post on swap day since I was at a beach hotel with a sick grandchild.  Now, today I am going to put this up and put the link on Bead Peeps and hopefully some hoppers will find me anyway.

my beadwork in a topsy-turvey way