This piece is another which has been looking for a home. I made the piece on a workshop at Heartspace Studios with Basil Kardasis in 2012. I’ve noted before that I love things that are really heavy with beads and this little sample definitely is. I could have mounted it as a piece in its own right, but I always felt that it wanted to be worn. So finally I made it up into this very large amulet. It does have a flavour of tribal beading
but as I was thinking about it, I thought it was also very much influenced by those enormous macrame beaded neckpieces from the 1970s:
These are from a wonderful book I picked up for 50p from a second-hand bookshop (thrift store):
I have always loved big clunky flashy jewellery with lots of things hanging off, and this piece is flashy.
I made the rolled fabric beads and mixed them with commercial beads, which I think works really well:
and I kept to quite a restricted rich palette:
and then added a bead necklace in the bargain bin at the supermarket as the neck strap.
The back is atrocious, though:
A bit of cotton velvet against the skin.
This piece is basically an amulet to ward off anything that needs warding off, basically! I loved making it, so possibly it protects by giving off positive energy rather than anything more sinister.
