So while I'm waiting for the 'tile guy' to begin laying new floor tile in the bathroom where the shower-tile-project-that-won't-die is located, I was going through some more slides of previous work and came across a slide of one of the soft jewelry pieces I made some years ago.
Before clay, I worked extensively in fibers; weaving, needlework, ethnic clothing design, baskets. The funny thing about weaving was even before I got my hands on a loom, I knew how it all worked. but I won't get off on that right now--weaving is a whole 'nother bunch of posts.
The soft jewelry grew out of designing ethnic clothing. At one point, I was heavily involved with The Children's Art Center in Norfolk VA and a the Textile Designer's Association of Virginia. A wonderful teacher, Margot Carter Blair arrived upon our horizon and taught a great series of classes on design and application of a huge range of fibers and embellishments. She is a gifted and inspiring teacher.
This necklace is a pendent made of a cross-stitch pattern I designed, cotton embroidery thread tassels and beaded pom-poms and wrapped cording. The length is adjustable by positioning the two loops on either side of the back section. It can remain at the shortened length or lengthened by slipping the loops over the pom-poms on either side. The natural tension of cotton upon cotton holds the adjustment in place.
One day, I will repeat the necklace, but instead of cotton, use more luxurous materials--maybe a porcelain pendent and matching beads.
I'm so glad I started trying to remember to keep a photography record of my work early on. It's great to have the visual references in order to dip into them in order to think about new variations on old themes.
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