Back

Hello Monday. So, it's time for the weekly weekend recap. I did indeed pull down the mannequin and get designing on the back drop necklace. Now, if you're wondering what that is, it's a necklace meant to hang long in the back, usually worn by brides with a backless dress. I looked high and low for different design ideas for this, but there were only two basic designs I could find. One is a single or double chain hanging straight down the back ending with pearls or crystals. The second is a single, double or sometimes triple chain draping down in the back at different levels. All of them have simple fronts with a pendant. Obviously I couldn't just settle for either of these concepts as I needed to add tatting and well, I wanted it black and a bit dramatic too.

So this is the prototype. I don't generally make up whole pieces including chain work as a test, but there were so many factors with this one, I needed to. I used some bulk cheap chain I got at the craft store and didn't bother to embellish anything. I just wanted to see if I could get it to hang right, not strangle the wearer and well, be at least a little like I imaged it. Here we have the back and front view. I posted this up online to get feedback since I was very much in unfamiliar water and the only real complaint with the design was the shoulder flowers.

Those were tatted around metal rings to add stability and weight to the design and I made them first before any of the other bits and thematically, they don't really fit. So after after the feedback, I changed their design to reflect the scrolling in the other pieces. So now I'm asking for your opinions on the whole piece as well. The final piece will include a black crystal in the center bottom of the front piece, the chains will also be embellished likely with black swarovski rounds and I'm still debating the degree of embellishment of the other lace bits. I also still deciding whether the pieces will need to be stiffened or not. You know I personally prefer the lace soft, but will all the chain connections, I'm afraid misshaping with occur quickly without help. Perhaps I will just stiffen the back pieces. See, still working out details. I'll try to get it done up today or tomorrow, but no promises since there is so much to work out.

Other than the work on this piece the weekend was fairly normal and uneventful. I got a couple of smaller sales and I'm getting ready to do the taxes since the last of my forms should be available this week. So, totally not looking forward to this week...at all.