Fish on a string

With all the rain, I was feeling bored, and decided to play with my beads.  I noticed that I had a lot of larger beads that were sitting unused for years, and I thought they might look nice strung.  I don't normally do stringing - stringing is to beadwork what salads are to cooking; it's not about the technique, it's the ingredients.

I have had these little fish beads forever.  There are only seven of them, and the store where I bought them doesn't even sell them any more, so I either needed to come up with a design that would be good enough with those few fish, or get rid of them (never my first choice).  Once I developed the pattern for the necklace, I saw that I only needed three of the fish!  I decided the rest would go well on a bracelet.
I like the freshwater pearls and the silver filigree beads on the necklace better than the pearlized glass and rocaille beads on the bracelet, but I used a thick stretchy beading cord for the bracelet, and the holes weren't big enough on the better beads.  It's all right - the fish are finally out of my stash!

Challenges:
Juliet Arrighi


16 comments:

Chris said...

This is really pretty - love the pearls and blue beads together. Beats cleaning toilets which is what I've been doing!

Maria said...

These are beautiful! The fish fit in perfectly with the other gorgeous beads. Love the colours in this. Thanks for joining us over at the Craft-Room Challenge.

Maria xxxxx

Shelly Schmidt said...

WOW- gorgeous project- the pearls and shimmery silver beads are so pretty! You are so multi-talented- I think I will just whip up a necklace and bracelet today.....and the fish beads are very nice!

Debi said...

beautiful set, love the blue colour and those fish :-) thanks for joining us at Craft Room Challenge, Debi x

Myrna said...

Juliet
What a beautiful set. You most certainly did a great job using up your fish.
Myrna

Niki said...

This is lovely. The pearls and fish are great together. You have just the right shades of blue to complement the fish beads.

lady jasmine crafts said...

perfect thnaks for joining us at crafty-emblies x

Whimsey said...

How pretty - and a matching bracelet; now that worked out very well. Love the colors!

Thanks for joining us at Ladybug Crafts Ink!

~Michele

Beach Cat ! said...

Super wonderful. Makes me want to get out my beads and play!

Diane's Card Designs said...

Wow.....such a beautiful set! Love the fish and fresh and pearls. The blue looks so fresh.
Thanks for joining us at LCI Challenge this fortnight.
Diane xx

Vicky said...

very pretty :) good use of those beautiful fish :)

PinkyLisasInkyCrafts said...

Thank you for joining in our 4th challenge 'on or under the sea' over on the crafty-Emblies blog page.

Why a brilliant piece of jewellery. Love the colours used and those fish beads are lovely. Nice to see something different being entered.

I hope you will join us in future monthly challenges.

Hugs Lisa xxxxx DT

sparklingblackrose said...

Juliet this is stunning and I am sure anyone who received this would be very pleased! Id love to feature your creation on my blog, I will return to let you know when I post it on the featured crafters post :-) Hope to see you enter my All Crafts Challenge again soon, I love your work :-) Elaine-xxx-

Anonymous said...

Beautiful piece of work, love the colours. Thanks for joining us at Crafty-Emblies.

Beccalite said...

This is a lovely piece of work and fits in with out theme so so well.

Thank you so much for coming over and joining in with our 4th Challenge over at Crafty-Emblies

Great Big Huge Hugs

Becca xxx

sparklingblackrose said...

http://sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/featured-crafters-from-my-all-crafts_9.html You are featured :-) Elaine-xxx-