I often talk about how unique materials inspire my work and this necklace is definitely a case in point. I found the ceramic beads that hang at the end of the knitted dangles at the Market at Stitches Midwest this past summer. I have to give a shout out to booth owner Jolanta Narejko of Elka Design (www.elka-designs.com) because she had some of the COOLEST beads, findings and fabulous finished jewelry pieces I’ve seen in quite some time. I fell in love with these two different patterns of black and white beads. I played with/swatched several different design ideas before settling on this one. I was told when I bought them that they are African beads, but later found out that they are specifically called “mud cloth” beads.

I had not planned on leaving the silk threads hanging. They are actually the tails of the individual bead knitted dangles. But they’ve grown on me. Definitely outside of my normal “box.”

So along with the African mud cloth beads, the thread used is from the USA (Kreinik Silk Serica), the small beads are Japanese (Size 8 Miyuki seed beads and Size 10 Miyuki Delica beads) and the three large beads are German (vintage resin with crystals set in the recessed equator of the beads – I’ve had them for years, just waiting for a fun place to use them.)

Four continents represented in one necklace! Pretty fab, no?