'bout honkin' time

i have been promising to tell you about the bead project for so long now that you have probably begun to doubt its very existence if you cared enough to think about it at all.

in -what was it?- april i had this dream that i was supposed to make a set of prayer beads for a friend of mine. it was supposed to have fourteen beads, and designs based on the number fourteen.

 the cord had to be lavender, and it had to do with fourteen somehow, i thought. i tried different weight flosses and threads ans a couple of different patterns on a couple of different disc looms, but in the end i settled on seven strands of heavy two-ply thread that made a very nice cord.

i didn't know much about bead making, but jumped right in anyway, learning to make canes and to stretch them and to cut and recombine them. once i'd baked the beads i picked the best one from each of the fourteen designs for the prayer string, drilled a hole big enough for the cord, sanded them smooth, and buffed them with a dremel tool.

i left them loose to slide on the cord, each bead and the strands themselves carrying my prayers for this friend. they're heavy and smooth and feel good in your hand.