April BJP-Remembering TKaM

My Bead Journal Project for April celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the making of the movie, To Kill a Mockingbird.  The book, by Harper Lee, is one of a handful of novels I read at least once every decade.  And I never tire of watching the movie. Who hasn’t fought back tears when, in the famous courtroom scene, Reverend Sykes says to Scout, “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin'.”  Referring, of course, to Atticus Finch/Gregory Peck, just about the greatest fictional father of all time.

I’ve included some of my favorite images from the story in this piece – a mockingbird wing, picket fence, a tire swing mid-flight. In keeping with the black-and-white film, I’ve kept my colors to muted blacks, blues and grays, warming the palette up just a bit with the purple trail that wanders through the piece just like Harper Lee's words have woven their way through my life.

Old Design, New Stitch

I came up with a crisscross necklace design earlier in the year for an Art Bead Challenge, using herringbone stitch. While I really liked the resulting piece, it didn't turn out quite as I envisioned it.

I decided to try again using similarly shaped stones from my stash and cubic right angle weave. Worked in CRAW, which results in a rope with supple drape but more structure than herringbone, this necklace is exactly what I had in mind!

Wish I knew what these stones are - the string is  marked simply "freeform flat nuggets," but they are slightly iridescent and change from gray to green to silver to blue with the shifting light of day. And the stripes in the Czech glass accent beads really are that magnificent blue!

The length is 16”, and it’s perfect as a choker, but for those occasions when I’d like it a bit longer, I finished it with one of my favorite adjustable closures, a design I picked up from Melinda Barta’s excellent Custom Clasps video.