Eye of the Tiger

I found beautiful tiger eye beads at the Innovative Bead Show in Allentown a few weeks ago. As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to incorporate them into some piece of handmade beaded jewelry for my grandmother. Her birthday is at the end of October and being she's an admirer of tiger eye and that their colors epitomize the colors of fall, they made the perfect focal beads for her birthday gift. The question was, how to use them?

As I was running through the list of bead stitches I knew and other beading supplies I had in my arsenal, I thought they would be nicely showcased with the Zulu Flowerette stitch. 

In Diane Fitzgerald's book, Zulu Inspired Beading, she describes Zulu beadwork to be "multifaceted and has been studied, written about, and exhibited for cultural, aesthetic and historic reasons... Beadwork is deeply embedded in the culture of the Zulu people of South Africa. It is unique and distinctive in its colors and patterns, and particularly in its structure... Their patterns exhibit vibrant geometric designs, such as zigzag bands, diamonds, or triangles, which often contain symbolic meaning."

While I appreciate the historic and cultural significance of the Zulu Flowerette stitch, as well as its beauty, I was reminded of the many challenges the stitch presents to me each and every time I use it in a beading project.

The supplies I used for my grandmother's Zulu Flowerette necklace consisted of large rondelle shaped tiger eye beads, gold crystal bicones, metallic seed beads and an elegant 14k gold toggle clasp.

The Zulu Flowerette stitch requires you to string and stitch the entire length of your project first, and then work back and forth as many times as you desire, using the toggle clasp on each end as your turning point. In between each tiger eye you create a "Fleur De Lis" style embellishment, or Zulu Flowerette. Between the sharp edges of the crystal bicones and the multiple passes through the same bead hole as you work back and forth, the thread sometimes gets worn to the point of breaking. The closer I got to completing the necklace, the more unexpected tears appeared in my working thread. Exactly one day before my plan to present the necklace to my grandmother, a portion of the necklace's thread ripped to a point I thought was beyond repair.

With some last minute brainstorming, and a little glue, I was able to salvage the necklace. Instead of starting the necklace over, which I originally thought was my only option, I removed one end of the toggle and removed three sections of Zulu Flowerette's to give me enough thread to tie back into the necklace.

The final product was shorter then originally planned and one end of the toggle where it attaches to the rest of the necklace was not as refined as I would have liked. But in the end I saved the Tiger Eye Zulu Flowerette necklace and presented it to my grandmother--as planned--the next day. Regardless of my beaded struggles, I was satisfied with the finished product and my grandmother was thrilled with her latest beaded adornment! Plus, the length ended up working perfectly for her small frame.

In anticipation of hurricane Sandy, I'm hunkering down at my parent's house. Because I'm a glutton for punishment--or maybe a glutton for constantly seeking perfection--my next beading project is another Zulu Flowerette necklace, previously abandoned. Hmm, I wonder why?!

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What beading stitch or technique always seems to give you trouble? Any special advice on overcoming it?

As you might have already guessed, the Zulu Flowerette stitch gives me the most trouble. My way of overcoming the challenges the stitch presents is to try, try, try again. I'm banking on the "practice makes perfect" phenomenon.

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