Friday, September 14, 2007

Doodling with new threads

The black doodle is "Candlelight" metallic yarn. Its size is comparable to a size 20 in crochet cotton. What I like is the sparkle; what I don't really care for is how the strands separate in the picots, but that's just my personal reaction.


Then for the earring, I tried a pink quilting thread used together with a fine sparkly metallic blending filament. I like the stiffness of the quilting thread, and I like the sparkle of the metallic filament used with it. I found the rings a bit difficult to close, however, and of course working with 2 threads used as one is tricky!


I started with a mock ring, leaving a big loop at the start. Then halfway around, I slipped a glass pearl over the loop, put the shuttle through, and tightened around the bead.


Then I finished the mock ring and joined to the beginning.

The other beads were added over picots, with the exception of the drop bead -- that one was
strung on the ball thread.


The resulting earring has a good stiffness.
I just hope there is enough of those threads left for the other earring!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, Please help! need instruction in your clear way of explaining, how to add beads to the end of a split ring as in your red necklace. Your work and the displays have inspired me to make some of my own designs that I will post to my blog page soon.

sally menezes

Marilee Rockley said...

Hi Sally,
Do you mean the beads between split rings? If so, the beads are strung on both threads first, and wound back a few turns on each shuttle. You make your split ring, then slide up some beads from each shuttle. What I do then is secure them with a lockstitch (first half of a ds unflipped, 2nd half flipped). Then you have the beads in place and can do the next split ring.

Gina said...

I like this kind of thread combination for things that need a firmer body, like earrings, too. I like the picots splitting in some things and not others....it can add pizzaz or it can detract. It's fun mixing, isn't it?
:-) gina

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

I'm in awe... again! I love both pieces!