The bead choice was influenced by beads found in early Anglo-Saxon England, as these are the beads I have been working to recreate for the last 6 months or so. Before making the necklace, I asked the recipient to look through a list of historic beads, and point out a few that she liked. I then used ta few of the beads she chose as the basis for my inspiration. In period, most necklaces were not strung with the level of modern symmetry and the use of small metal spacer beads that I used in this necklace. However, early period necklaces might have been organized with a central focus bead as I have done here (see Castledyke necklace), and many of them do have some symmetry, if only a more vague symmetry of color/form (see Buckland partial necklace string-->documentation in progress).
When I tried 4-5 months ago to make beads for other people, it was very hard & stressful for me, because I could not always reliably create the bead I wanted to make, or keep my beads a consistent size. I would go through many beads until I created a few that satisfied me. Creating this necklace was MUCH easier. There were only a 2 or 3 beads I rejected during the process of making the 27 beads on this necklace. To me, this is a huge sign that I have gotten better with my bead making, and I look forward to being able to make things for people in the future!
