About 2-2.5 weeks ago, there was a Trading Post Guild trade event over on Artfire.
Alisun, one of my fellow Guild members, commissioned a custom kumihimo set as part of a trade.
Alisun does exceptionally, wonderful jewelry in crystals and chains that I don't work with myself, and as a result, I tend to get a lot of birth day gifts from her in these trade events. So this past event, she asked if it were possible, if she bought the pendant from another Guild member,
Silver River Jewelry, had it shipped to me, for me to make her a kumihimo set like my
other sets I'd done- one (Trio) of which she'd gotten from me in an event months ago and accidentally gave away. Whoops.
I agreed and we went from there. Other than the pendant, the design was left up to me. Funnily enough, the pendant she'd chosen was one I'd had favorited as a piece I'd love to work with (I love working with Silver River Jewelry pendants, kumihimo goes so well with them).
It took a few days, after receiving the pendant, to decide what yarn I wanted to use. I ended up going with 100% Pima Cotton in the White Linen colorway, to play off the opals. It took roughly 6 hours over 3 days to create the kumihimo cord, long enough for my purposes.
The cord was then cut to specific lengths, two for the choker style necklace, two for the earrings and even two for the bracelet, all of which would comprise the entire set. At this time, I chose the beads and findings I would be using as well. For the beads, I used green/rose 22 kt gold and copper Delicas, mixed.
I started with the choker first, twineing the two strands of kumihimo around each other, assuring that there was an even number of twists on each side of the pendant, which was carefully centered. The clasp is a pure copper toggle clasp. The copper slide clasp would go on the bracelet. And stainless steel earwires were used for the earrings, which at this point, I hadn't decided which semiprecious stone chips to use in the center of.
Completion of the beading of this set took 2 days, roughly 2 hours each day.
Unfortunately, when it was completed on the 2nd day, the sun had already gone down, so I couldn't get natural light photos. I ended up choosing labradorite chips with lots of blue and green flash in them, to complement the green, blue and red flashes in the opals. I was going to use moonstone, but I couldn't seem to locate them. The labradorite worked out better in the end, in my opinion.
Boxed up and already to go. I haven't heard from Alisun yet (she wasn't feeling well all last week, so hasn't been online lately) but I'm sure it was well received. And now, I'm off to wrap a scarf that's another custom order for a woman Mark works with. Photos of that when it's finished as well.
amused
contemplative