Jewelry Round-Up

I made this "jet" collar way way back in law school (my own design and everything!):

But why stop at one?  I figured a long "jet" necklace with a tassel at the end would be fun too.  I strung the beads together and added a tassel.  Too late I realized I should have added the tassel before tying up the beads, so I set aside the rather messy looking thing.  Years later I find it again, but rather than restring it and do it up properly (I'd much rather work around mistakes than redo them, for good or ill), I covered up the junction with one-cut shiny black seed beads.  I added more to the tassel itself for embellishment.  The whole thing took just one hour.  And fourteen years.

Have you seen Sita Sings the Blues?  You really should, it is funny, heart-breaking, and utterly beautiful visually.  When I picked up the DVD I couldn't resist two little Sita charms to make earrings:

They are quite heavy, though.  I may have to turn them into necklaces.

I turned some the beautiful beads I got from Handloom Batik at the Quilt Fest into a necklace:

I opted for a black leather cord, loosely knotted to set off each bead.  I didn't have a long enough cord, though, so I tied two pieces together, using that technique where you knot each cord around the end of the other (rather than tying them together, if that makes sense), so that you can slide the knots back and forth to expand or contract the necklace:

It's usually used as a closure, to make the necklace big enough to slip over the head and then cinch it tighter around the neck, but I used it in the center to hold the cross pendant:

Pretty!