Iriquois Echoes - In Limbo

This beaded collar had a few new approaches within the Kindred Spirits Series.  When I began to approach the layout of the focal stones, I was not satisfied with the shape of the beaded collar template that was being used, instead I wanted to create a hand drawn base to move forward from so, for a few days the exercise was to come up with a pattern that would accomodate larger stones yet was not over stated.  This is what I came up with.

I began collecting special cut stones and fossils by the talented lapidary artist Gary Wilson thanks to Sherry Serafini's strong recommendation at the Bead and Button Show in 2005.  Ever since, it has been hard to find anyone who is as masterful in his acquiring beautiful stones and his unbelievable talent at cutting and creating these masterpieces.  These special stones have been extensively used in this piece.  

Two main stone types, the first is Chrysolite and the second being Labradorite.  The Chrysolite looks a lot like Turquoise as it has high traces of copper.  The Labrodorite is the luminous bluish stone on the upper left hand corner of the image below.  After that the secondary focal points are mother of pearl disks.  The mother of pearl disks are the ones on the lower right corner.  
As I started my collaging the stones and placing beads on the template, the stones were so mesmerizing that it was appealing to have seed beads echo the shapes and offset the hues as in a rippling effect. So the amount of seed beads in Size 11, 15 and 3 cut 15's required are much higher.  

Rarely do I show people what the back side of the beaded embroidery looks like, so today I took some extra shots to share, really two beads stitched and then backstitched at a time.  It looks like a maze of threads crisscrossing on the back.  It's too bad it ends up being covered once all the bead embroidery is done.

At this point, the main body of the piece is almost complete, and actually today I was so ready to complete it except for one simple reason........ I ran out of the seafoam luster green Delicas that dominate the overall color scheme!  

So, now along with all the other LB o J'zazzers I am eagerly awaiting the first ever shipment of seed beads, Delicas and Czech beads to satisfy my need to bead.  This has been one of the most rewarding beaded collars in terms of the end result and am considering entering the piece in competitions such as the Bead Dreams by Bead and Button and The Saul Bell Design Awards by Rio Grande.  

Will keep you posted as the project nears completion.