Long Strands of Knots

Here's a photo I took this afternoon about 4:30 on the edge of the main patio at Spanish Village. If you look carefully at the top left flower on the plant, you can see a hummingbird drinking nectar. I tried to move in a little closer, but then I waited too long and he flew away, up into the branchs of the jacaranda tree in the main patio of Spanish Village. While I watched, he systematically went from blossom to blossom drinking the nectar. When he turned so the sun hit the front of his head, he flashed a bright red color. I hoped to get that red, but I waited too long.

Today turned out to be rather productive in several respects. The City electrician worked in my studio, adding fixtures to the ceiling so that I can install track lighting. He will add some outlets and do some more work tomorrow. But in the meantime the ceiling is ready to be replaced. I don't know if the carpenter will start that tomorrow or next week, but soon. Then the only thing left will be to install the track lights and paint. Then I can be open for business.

In the meantime, I spent the day in one of the other studios working on the breciated jasper necklace that I started yesterday. It turned out to be a problem. I had hoped that I could string 212 beads on one strand of pre-measured silk. However, because the beads are small, so that more knots are required, I wasn't able to get so many beads on the silk. So what I did was string half the beads on each of two pieces of silk. I knotted between each bead and then attached the ends to beads with wire loops on them. After I was finished with all the knotting, I was able to create more wire loops and attach the two strands together. This way I can make very long necklaces which are in fashion now and still use the pre-measured silk which is very handy to work with. I could use the same technique to attach a whole lot of strands of knotted beads together to make a multi-strand necklace, something I'd been wanting to do for quite awhile.

The pleasant finish to my day was when I went back to the bead store to buy more silk for tomorrow's project, both owners complimented me on my necklace spontaneously and at the same time. Sometimes I take my jewelry off before I go into the bead stores, but this time I was in a hurry. Also, I find that the knotted beads hang better if the silk is allowed to stretch a little by my wearing the necklace or by hanging it up somewhere.