I have a fun student by the name of Shelli. She's taken all my classes at Brea Bead Works since I began teaching classes there this year. She is what I call fearless. She's got red hair and I swear she was "Ariel" the "Little Mermaid" in another life. :) Shelli's a free spirit that loves to go off the beaten path and do her own thing. I just love that quality in a student. Her cuffs and rings look like they've washed ashore at the beach, and every one of my projects she makes, it takes on a life of it's own and is definitely a "Shelli" piece, not a "Kat" piece. Her latest project was the Double Wave Pearl Cuff. She choose to use 14 gauge wire instead of the instruction to use 16 gauge wire, and it posed some challenges. The 14 gauge produces a "beefier" cuff, which is what she likes, but changing up wire size is risky. She had to be careful about how much wire the spirals would take up, she was incorporating a large focal piece in the center, and she had to plan for how much wire to weave on each side. I advised her to use long lengths and to trim the ends to adjust. She worked very diligently, but she needed to make some adjustments after the fact and her hands were tired and she was just plain frustrated. Not wanting her to feel like she had put a lot of work into something all for naught, I offered to adjust it so it would fit her wrist and that the focal would be centered. Voila! The result is the stunning image above. So what is the moral of the story? Take risks, think outside the proverbial box or your comfort zone. Even if something doesn't turn out the way you thought it would, it might be able to be rescued or even be great as something else. Bottom line, it's all good and it can yield really amazing things!
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