shanmonster | Stiff and Stoned

I don't know why I'm so stiff and sore today. My back, shoulders, and neck all feel like I did a massive workout, but I didn't do anything out of the ordinary yesterday. Maybe it's because of the heat and humidity. It made beading difficult.

Over the past month or so, I've been making beaded fringe. Each strand is about eight or nine inches long, and I knot after every fourth bead. It takes about thirty minutes to do each strand. Right now, I have over thirty of them. I need about twice that to make myself a dance belt, and then a bunch more (shorter, though) for a matching top. However, I just ran out of seed beads today. It's a good thing seed beads are easy to find. I got my last crop of them at a Salvation Army for fifty cents.

Despite the relatively low cost for the beads, I could never sell this fringe for what it's worth. I couldn't compete with the well-made and inexpensive fringe coming from Egypt. Nevertheless, my fringe is definitely one-of-a-kind. No one out there will have anything similar, because I've pulled beads from many sources. I just need to find a good way of attaching it to a garment, now.

I'm also working on another hip chain. This one incorporates bronze, poppy jasper rounds, yellow jade rounds, and facetted flat oval mookaite stones. The colours work wonderfully together, and it's going to be a beautiful piece of jewellery. I sure hope I can sell it!

Now, however, it's time to kick some arse. Off to kung fu!