Friday 12 April 2013

Ambrosina


Unlike the serendipity of the perfect crystals materialising at just the right time, Ambrosina has turned a seat of the pants roller coaster ride! Ambrosina means 'immortal' in Greek and is the name of both a bulbous fleshy plant and some divine Christian Louboutin shoes.
I'll be teaching this class at Beader's Best in Hamburg and in the Uk in Dorset too.... but before that, I'm teaching it at the beginning of May for the Beadworker's Guild. Sourcing just the right supplies can be a tense and nerve wracking business! Mostly in this case, because the first Ambrosina necklace samples were made in the depth of winter. This lovely journal,  covered in vintage silks was my colour inspiration. But, and this will be oooh so familiar to some folk out there, I used some dark bronze colour findings from my stash that I felt sure were widely available, without checking to see if they were.
The design uses my favourite technique of netting with a few tweeks and lavish ribs of embellishments with crystals, so far so good, but it also uses over size end caps and a weeny bit of wire work.
I have spent many hours and visits to suppliers in search of a lovely alternative, and was about to despair! Until I finally found a source of gorgeously patterned, silver end caps... the order is due to arrive tomorrow...
Inspired by antique silks,
Winter coloured Ambrosina necklaces
So I have been consoling myself with creating some truly summery colour mixes to work as the final samples... which of course, meant ordering yet more beads to get it 'just right'... these will hopefully also arrive tomorrow, leaving me a weekend to bead up a frenzy and finally be satisfied with my samples for these particular classes.
It's such fun choosing colours, I'll be offering...
'Lime in-da coconut' ivory, silver and the zingiest lime.
'Earth Angel' soft cream, bronze, silver and sand opal crystals.
'Indigo Dream', navy blue, pewter and violet Ab crystals.
'Mint Julep', Turquoise and silver with mint alabaster crystals, this is going to be interesting as the opaque crystals are a new adventure for me, but not everyone wants to glitter and sparkle!
so like the sand opal crystals this is a softer option.
I'll post the pictures when I'm done beading!
If you feel tempted already... click on the links to find the booking pages for the classes.