Week 52-2 - Physical And Visual Balance

For this challenge, I used more of the multi-coloured beads as well as some beads made from remnants of a fabulous grey fabric that draped like a dream but had a horrendous penchant for continuing to shrink long into the future even with preshrinking, with a cold water wash, with hanging to dry. I can't use it to sew clothing anymore so it's perfect for jewelry. I love the texture.

The challenge was to create a piece with a primary focal point and a secondary focal point that was both physically and visually balanced. The larger grey bead weighs 6 grams and the smaller beads weigh 1 gram each.

The split between the grey and the multi-coloured beads needed to be at center front and the ending of each side of the chain needed to be even at the back. I tried all sorts of ways to get the beads on one side to equal the same weight as the beads on the other side - ways that were distracting, especially when I worked with different alternating beads on each side. Only these small black ones seemed to work well.

In the end, I took apart five of the grey beads and added a 1 gram bead to the center of each so that the physical weight on each side of the necklace would be even, meaning it would hang straight. That took about five hours of trialing different ideas.

Two friends tried this piece on on the same day. One said it was discomforting and the other found it energizing. I love how we're all the same and yet so uniquely different.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - perseverance