Gift of the Magpie

Several months ago I redeemed a Christmas gift certificate from two dear friends, MacAllister and Medievalist, for a Bead of the Month selection from any month. I think I got a "Big Magpie" certificate - although with the selection I received, it might have been "Mother Of All Magpies" - there were certainly a lot of wonderful beads in it.

Well, I've been staring at these beads since they came, trying to decide what I would do with them. I wanted the design to be extra special, since not only were the beads a gift, but the Bead of the Month club is one of Elise Matthesen's endeavors - and you know how much I love her work and appreciate her sense of color, design and whimsy.

Last night I was busy again with the organizing and arranging and *there* were *those* beads. And over *there* were these *other* beads (some favorites of mine that I bought down at Beadology in Huntington Beach back in February) - wait! They would work together really, really well, I thought. And here's what happened:

The necklace lanyard is 34" long. The Botmo beads are the three larger roundells in the center focal area and the larger tablet cut beads. In between are faceted glass rounds with a yellow/gold/olivine and opaque turquoise pattern and faceted small roundells in that same yellow/gold/olivine with faint turquoise swirls inside them separated with seed bead sized gold-plated beads. I love this one - I don't know if I'll be able to part with it!

Now I'm working on something with the aquamarine nuggets, round beads and pale watery-blue chips (glass?) to which I'm adding my own light aqua druk beads, sterling silver beads in 3 sizes and darker aqua glass seed beads. Should be able to post a picture of that tomorrow.

There are still a lot of Botmo beads left, so I'm sure I'll be mentioning them in future designs.

Thank you Mac, Medievalist and Elise!