These “Before” and “After” photos show one way that the gorgeous materials pictured here – some of my favorites: Just Our Yarn Almaza tencel, Kreinik Silk Serica, beautifully variegated, small, round jasper beads and larger, shiny brown, oval shell pearls, along with some teeny tiny needles (Size 0000 DPN’s!) and 26 gauge copper wire – could be worked together to create a new necklace. It’s named for my friend, fellow teacher and inspirational designer Myra Wood.

But the wonderful materials are not the only “Before” and “After” story here.

By the time I begin work on a new piece, I’ve usually engaged in several rounds of play with my chosen materials and have at least some idea of what I think the finished piece might look like. It started out the same way this time. But then, and I don’t know why, I found myself knitting most of the colorful wrappers for the variously sized beads without even graphing the patterns. Let me repeat…WITHOUT graphing the patterns! SO not like me. But SO much fun! Maybe Myra’s right-brained, organic way of working has inspired me? But then a snag. After several attempts, my original idea for what I was going to do with the completed beads didn’t pan out and I began to feel as though I might have hit a brick wall. Then I saw a random picture of a very simple necklace in a magazine and whammo! Although very different from my finished design for this piece, something about its construction got me un-stuck and started me working with the same components but in a new direction. It required making lots more beads (the small, plain knit beads that form the “chain” of the necklace) but that’s fun for me. And before I knew it, I found the joy of the piece that I thought I had lost.

So many lessons brought home in the making of “Myra.” Staying open is what it’s about. I love what I do.