Black Frost

Profile Data –

Piece Title: Black Frost.
Date: Spring/Summer, 2011.
Class: Stock.
Status: SOLD.
Production Time: Two to four weeks.
Approximate Length: N/A
Materials: Jeweler's chain, jump rings, decorative metal and glass slider beads, black glass bi-cones, and jet glass chandelier prisms.
Quirks: Experimental choker is experimental...

I have never shied away from the fact that I will gladly commit punishment-themed gluttony in the name of producing the best possible result I can. This is one of those instances, and I really couldn't be prouder of the way it turned out.

For a while, now, I've wanted to see if I could create a choker – the trick of chokers being that they have to be one-size-fits-all when it comes to the ones you find mass-produced for store shelves. After a while, I realized that it was all in the length of the chain that went around the neck, and then worked to cut this necklace in the same way. The experiment turned out to be a successful one, as this little baby went around two different necks and fit just fine both times.

The hitch of everything, though, were the metal sliders.

Made of glass components and metal, I first spied these beauties in my favorite crafting supply store, and I HAD TO HAVE THEM. So, I snatched two strands of the same style, and paid that afternoon. However, the way the loops on the slider's backs were positioned made them suitable for traditional beading methods – and not for the linking technique I used here. So, after trying a couple of different methods, I ended up looping and bending individual straight pins normally used for making earrings, threading them through each of the sliders, and then linking them closed out the other end. This made them a touch easier to work with, never mind the trauma my fingertips experienced for at least a couple of days afterwards...

It was in the midst of this set's production, however, that my good fiend Joseshin showed interest in acquiring it for herself. In her own words, chokers are one of her few weaknesses, and she really, REALLY wanted this one. So, when asked what would become of it, I told her that it was destined to become a stock piece for the table at Shakespeare Festival. When she asked how much the whole set was going to cost – including the bracelet not pictured in the final take of it because it wasn't ready in time – I told her the amount I projected it to land at...and just like that she threw a small down-payment at me, staking her claim.

As she put it, she “didn't want anyone else getting it before she did.”

Oh, Joseshin. How I love you at times.

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