Saturday, November 8, 2008

Shaken, not stirred

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*Cue James Bond theme music*

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words 'spy movie'? For my husband, it was HANDCUFFS. Read into that what you will... LOL

I had to agree with him that beaded handcuffs would perfectly suit last week's Year of Jewellery theme on the Beading Forum...SPY MOVIE!

Ever since buying Carol Wilcox Wells book 'The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving', I'd been wanting to try dimensional right angle weave (the book features a project for some fantastic 3D RAW beaded beads). Using the same technique from the book, I set about creating my beaded handcuffs.

With the usual week-long deadline looming, I had to simplify the design greatly. In fact, I was so short of time that I only managed to create the handcuffs, when I had been planning to make them into a necklace.

Here is the end result - made entirely of size 11 czech seed beads in 3D RAW and tubular peyote:



And a different angle which better shows the 'dimensional' part of the cuffs:



And yes, I'm aware that the handcuffs have no keyhole...I realised that fact by the time it was too late to add them... *doh* Ah well, there's no escaping these handcuffs ;) *mwahahahahah*

Despite much unpicking, hair-pulling, and learning as I went along, I'm keen to experiment further with 3D RAW. It has infinite possibilities. It's a technique which allows you to create structures that are not possible with any other stitch.