My first attempt at Heirloom Lace, and with the use of memory wire, is credited to the Bead and Button site. I am acquiring photos of another wide Heirloom Lace choker with matching earrings. You guessed it -- I gave it away.
Antique Amethyst
Amethyst/maroon 11/0 seed beads with silver colored and amethyst beads of varied sizes in fringe.
Hand Band
Heirloom Lace is used for the wrist band and the ring. The rest is "free-filled" with netting to fit. Cranberry seed beads with silver colored accents.
Antique Amber
Amber and topaz colored 10/0 seed beads with amber, topaz, and pale beige accent beads in the fringe.
Made and given to my best friend's mother with one admonition only. Wear it in good health. Matching earrings to come.
Heirloom Hearts
My granddaughter loves to wear jewelry but I was dubious about sending her to school with anything that hangs. She's in Kindergarten and they can be a bit rough on anything even semi-delicate. I solved the problem by creating an Heirloom Lace heart choker. She loves it and so does everyone else.
Pink Sparkle
Another example of an Heirloom Lace choker on memory wire. Drea wears this on dress-up occasions.
Diamonds in Diamonds
This is a variation of the original Heirloom Lace instructions (3 bead spacing). I increased the spacing to 5 beads and the width to 8 rows.
Matching earrings. Since the Heirloom Lace wouldn't stand up on its own I chose to make the earrings with the same design in brick stitch. It lends itself well to diamond shapes with a natural diagonal pattern.
Hubby's Hatband
While my husband has been very supportive of my beading - not complaining when he finds needles in the bed or floor or when he steps all over the beads I've managed to spill for the umteenth time - I never expected that he'd want to wear it. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when he actually requested that I make a hatband for him. Of course I jumped at the chance!
The large beads you see at the junctions of the lace in the close-up below are "found" items. I picked up a large bag of costume jewelry for $2.00 at a thrift shop. As it turned out the findings alone were worth much more than that. The beads are faceted metal but, beyond that, I don't know what they are or where they're from. They do offset the seed beads quite nicely though - don't you think?
