Pink Pinstripe Ruffle Cuff

As you may have realised from my blog and the work it contains, I seem to be drawn to the bigger statement pieces of jewellery rather than intense embellishment.  I love clean forms and shapes that shouldn't be possible in beadweaving. 

There is so much inspiration going on at the moment thanks to the amazing Jean Power.  Her work inspired the magnificent Kate McKinnon which in turn inspired a whole group of beaders who came up with Contemporary Geometric Beadwork (and the Facebook page).  This book will be utterly immense and I can't wait to see the paper copy as well as watching the subsequent evolving eBook.  That's right, they're releasing an evolving eBook!  Talk about bucking the trend! 

Anyways, I was looking through the beautiful pieces that have been submitted by the beading community on the Facebook page and was hit by the beauty of Kate McKinnon's Horned Melon Cuff (have a look through the photos, you'll find it!) and this is what I was inspired to create:

 I started with the incredibly elegant Modified Right Angle Weave (if you buy The Book then you get access to lots of pre-order goodies, including how the MRAW works - it is genius!) and a pile of Purple Iris Delicas (DB004) with a smattering of Silver Lined Fuchsia Delicas (DB1340) and set to work!  This cuff evolved as I was making it - the amount of beads I had and the feel I was getting dictated how it would turn out, rather than having a complete design in my head before I picked up my needle.

This is the view from the top.

In reality (rather than a pretty rubbish photo taken with my ancient BlackBerry!) the Purple Iris delicas sparkle and shine in an oil spill of purples and greens, darkening the Silver Lined Fuchsia from a girly Barbie pink to quite a dangerous, almost violent pink.

Here you can see the depth of the cuff.

So there you have it, a cuff that is nothing like I have ever made before, but now has me absolutely brimming with ideas for horns and wings and oh so much more!  Go pre-order both Jean Power's Geometric Beadwork Book AND Kate McKinnon's Contemporary Geometric Beadwork - the books will flow pretty seamlessly I imagine because Jean is the keystone to the community effort curated by Kate.  I can't wait to get mine!