Gallery 5 HUNT FOR RED OCTOPUS

Red Octopus necklaces

I've made necklaces with these little octopus beads before and recently made two red ones.

The newest one is on the top left and made for an editor friend, Sunny Parsons, since I felt she needed a friend with a ready supply of red ink. The little bead, of course by Jason Solomon of Earthworks Studios (see link below) was somewhat difficult to match but finally I found that by making the spiral core alternating opaque dark red beads with persimmon colored ones and weaving the spiral alternating garnet round beads and Padparaskha Swarovski crystals, adding in a little topaz seed bead to pick up the bumps, the match was really attractive. The starfish Swarovskis don't look like a match in some light (or in the picture) but when worn with the necklace reflect its colors really effectively. Still, Sunny is not a really glitzy type person ordinarily so I made her some more serious earrings with little dark red lampwork beads and more of the Padparaskha crystals.

The one on the top right is for my friend Tania Opland, a musician who counts among her instruments a fiddle. She needs a necklace that will not fiddle around when she wants to hold the fiddle to her chin so the strap had to be very simple and I chose a simple spiral stitch. It's hard to see, but the background of this bead is a deep purple, the octopus shades from dark red to salmony pink with light gold on his suckers so I used these colors in the strap and finished it with a Swarovski button with a volcano finish. The octopus bead is, of course, one of the beauties from Jason Solomon of Earthworks Studios. The second bead, Also Jason's, is a brighter red and the background has beautiful violet and purple flowers on the sea floor. I chose this red octopus for my friend Charley's birthday because she is a multi-tasking writer so probably needs lots of red ink and extra hands. I just strung this one with the nice red glass shell-like beads I got from the bead store and some heliotrope Swarovski crystals to pick up the purples in the background.

All images and patterns © copyright 2007 Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. All rights reserved.