Beady Gift for my Mother in Law

My mil has always been a really big supporter and encourager of my bead work.  I've been beading for quite a few years now, and I never made her anything.  The other day I showed her the black and silver Oglala necklace and she completely looooooooooooved it (click here if you want to go back and check it out).  I should have known she would...she adores ruffles!  If it's got ruffles, she's a-likin' it.  Now, she has really liked a lot of my other work in the past, but none of them totally clicked in my head as thinking she would wear it.  But as soon as she saw the Oglala, it just hit me that this is what I needed to make for her...I wanted to make for her.

I told her I wanted to make her one, and we discussed color and length.  She likes bright colors, with teal being her favorite, and she likes her necklaces to hang longer.  We decided it needed to be at least 30 inches.  I went bead shopping yesterday at a little shop not too far from my house.  For the core I chose a 6/0 in a metallic iris finish.  Depending on the light they change from purple to green to gold.  I chose in 11/0 a transparent lined teal, a matte purple (really pretty shade...it's hard to find gorgeous purples), a cranberry tinted goldish metallic and I had on hand some cranberry colored beads.

The color that is used the most and goes throughout the necklace is the teal.  I used almost the whole tube of those.  The next color was cranberry/rose-ish gold to give it some sparkle (my new favorite word this week) and kick.  The large ruffle down the middle/front is the purple and there is just a wee hint of the cranberries.  I so wish the camera picked up the colors better.  They are really really pretty. 

I originally told her it would take a while to finish, being that it is so long and that I was in the middle of another project.  But I was a little bored of the project on my table, so I switched over to hers.  I started yesterday afternoon, worked for quite a few hours, went to bed, woke up at 4:30 a.m. and worked quite a few more hours.  I went back to bed and worked on it throughout the rest of the day.  Between yesterday afternoon and this evening when I finished it I guess I have about 11 hours into it.  Not bad...I've been told I'm a fast beader.

So I called her up and told her I finished it and I wanted to bring it over to give to her.  I had such butterflies and knots in my stomach.  I soooo wanted her to like it.  I told her she had to be honest with me about it.  I showed it to her and she said she did like it a lot. (whew!)  She said it was a good choice I made to put that rosy metallic in there, otherwise the colors might have been too flat.  (whew, again!)  She went to her room and pulled out a top that she's going to wear with it.  It is almost the exact same shade of purple as the beads in the necklace!  It looks like it was meant to be together from the very beginning.  If I had actually planned it to go with that top I don't know that I could have done as well.  (whew, again!!!)

Here are some pics.  Maybe I'll get a pic or two of her wearing it sometime to put up to show.  It kind of looks like a little knot or tie in the back.  Since it's large enough to slip over the head and didn't need a clasp, I wanted to make it a little more interesting than just a circle.  The two ends curled in a bit, so with the string at each end I backed up about an inch, tied the string in four knots, glued the knot, weaved the threads back through the beads and back out again, tied it in four knots and glued it again, then tucked in the threads and snipped them.  Hoping it will hold well enough!  But I thought that little tie thing in the back would add a little more interest than just tying the very ends together.  What do you think?

You can always click on the pics for a larger view.