Ginormous Diamonds at City Beads of Chicago next month!

 So yesterday I reported relief at finding a missing necklace and not having to make yet another. Fact is, frequently it is necessary to make multiples of a designs. Just completing the original sometimes involves several fits and starts. I make notes all along the way and, in a perfect world, the steps could simply be followed sequentially to duplicate the original. But, alas, the world, though beautiful and interesting and an adventure is (gratefully) not perfect.
Though there is no expectation of it being completed in 6 hours, routinely a project will be slated for a 6 hour class. Each and every one of the salient points and pertinent techniques involved  have to be addressed within that time frame. This makes the sequence of the steps irrelevant. Instead, the aspects of the steps that become the foundation for the next step, must be identified and addressed. And the way that the actual stitch used varies from the standard stitch, must be covered as well. While test driving the recipe from this new approach,  I complete a copy of the first. And when it happens that the project will be exhibited in several venues where I will teach it, then I need several copies. Nice problem. This New Year's I got to make yet another Ginormous Diamond Knock Down Necklace. You can see one at City Beads in Chicago, where I will be teaching this February 26.
Even though I relish making necklaces of marcasite charlottes that look like delicate jewelry store chains (Trilogy of Chains), after Fran laid a couple of these ginormous diamonds on me last year I just KNEW I had to get myself to that mine and get me a bunch of these so I can share the wealth! The resulting project is this necklace/lariat called Ginormous Diamond Knock-Down (intentional double entendre meaning that it is both knock-down drag-out over-the-top gorgeous AND it knocks down into several styles/sizes/options due to 3 magnetic closures). At first glance one might sum it up as r.a.w, herringbone, fringe, odd-count peyote and African helix. While this is true, each of these stitches is infused with tricks and variations that even seasoned beaders will want to know. You sign up and I'll supply the "diamonds"!
I'll be at City Beads for the entire weekend. On Friday Feb 24 join me for Twisting Twirling Trillium Necklace while learning swirling renditions of peyote and polygon and these beaded beads I call Trillium that begin rather routinely and develop in unexpected ways...you"ll want to make more than two but, do it on your own time afterwards. Saturday Feb 25 is Hand Felted Complex Cane Beads Necklace. There will be an array of gorgeous dyed merino wool to work with. Saturday night we're sneaking in an evening workshop of a New, Original, Corrugated and Even Reversible Bracelet using a stitch I devised based on a tubular African stitch. More on these in the days to come...