Lekku Neckace

This necklace was quite the challenge. I found the instructions in Rachel Nelson-Smith's Seed Bead Fusion book and fell in love right away.  I'm currently in my "beading period" which may be followed by some other craft or revert back to a previous one - who knows.  I purchased all my supplies from local bead shops and went to work. The directions were relatively easy and I found myself moving right along. There are two stages to this piece - the rope base and the embellishment.  I followed Rachel's directions and used "beading thread" - I think it was nymo. I was about 90% done when I looked down and was shocked to find the drop embellishments in the middle coming apart. I used double thread just like Rachel suggested and was dumbfounded. Since this piece is worked in a netting style there was just no way to repair it. I had to take the entire thing apart.  I think my husband was more upset than I was. I knew how many night he went to bed alone while I stayed up beading this behemoth and the thought of a repeat was a bit shocking to him.

Anyway, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess and I separated all my beads and started again. This time I used 6 lb Fireline DOUBLED for the entire piece. I figured better safe then sorry.  It came out really pretty and much chuckier than I had imaged.  I typically wear simple pieces so on Christmas Eve I wore this with a simple white blouse and black slacks. Boy did it stand out. I received many compliments and no one could believe I made it.  I even had someone place an order for two bracelets I made - thanks Nikki!!

I'm not sure I will ever make this again. It was very time consuming and used tons of beads which add up after a while.  However, it's a special "statement" piece that I will always cherish!