When I finished the needlepoint stitching.....
.....I felt a little "stuck" as to where to go with it.
As usual, I shifted my attention to something else for a while...
...and allowed the thoughts to come.
It always works!
The needlepoint panel is very flat.....
....and I wanted to "lift" it....quite literally....
....so I sat with the hat in my hands.....
...turning it around.....
...touching.....
...fondling.....
...and noticing the little bunches of sticky-up beads around the top amulet.
They are attached in a particular way....
...a bead on the bottom...
...then another 3 on the thread before going back down through the bottom one...
...to give the height and wobble.
I used a size 8 gold bead for the "foundation bead"...
...then 3 size 11 raku-coloured blue/green/purple beads for the top.
This is going to take AGES to get around the outside of the stitched panel...
...even though it's not huge...
...there is a dense concentration of beads going on here!!
Still.....
...the rhythm of ... up...one gold....three blue....down....up....one gold...three blue....down....
...allows me more thinking time......
...as I listen to the slight squeaky-grating sound of the beads as I work :-)
x C