Saturday, July 9, 2016

Seed Bead Necklace



Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni by Ghirlandaio
Image from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Ghirlandaio-Giovanna_Tornabuoni_cropped.jpg



I made a necklace similar to this one with 2mm seed beads. I suspect that this type of necklace (which is seen widely in Italian portraiture of this time) is made from a knotted cord. I decided to make one in this style from beads. Usually I love beading, but this was a troublesome project (mainly due to the size of the beads.)









The completed necklace

Monday, July 4, 2016

Plans for a Quest

I found the Noble Pilgrimage to be so helpful, so beneficial, that I have decided to set myself a personal Quest. I think that I will set the time frame at three or six months, and then review my goals and change focus to keep things fresh and interesting.


Image from: https://medievalchristianityd.wikispaces.com/Roderick+Hulin+-+Pilgrimage

One aspect that I would like to include in the new Quest is learning new skills. There are many things that I have wanted to learn for a very long time, and they always seem to fall by the wayside as more pressing projects come up. Time to change this!

Another thing that I noticed when I was trying to make my recent garb from stash was that I have a terrible habit of starting projects (especially embroidery) and putting them aside and never finishing them. One way to help stay on track with these sort of projects might be to keep lists/notes of what needs to be done and mark down starting dates and progress.

I would also like to highlight a specific area that needs to be focused on. For instance, I need new body linens as mine are all wearing out. Prior to next winter, warmer layers might need to be a focus area. I would also like to have a couple more tourney dresses.

These focus points are in addition to the things that I learned that I need to spend more time on: grace, posture, cutting out mundane and slang speech, using titles, trying harder to talk to people I don't know very well/pointy hats. These tasks will be ongoing, I think.


So, on top of all the other things that need to be done, my Quest goals will be:
* Developing New Habits
* A New Skill
* Unfinished Projects
* Focus Area  - at this time it will be "body linens"
I might add in
* Projects for Others too, because I didn't realise how much time I spend on this until I did the Pilgrimage.

I will initially set the review point at three months, although I think that will probably be too short a time to achieve what I would like to (especially given that I am sick so much in winter and that my hands don't work very well. We'll see!)