The Faience Necklace – still thinking…
After her discovery of the piece of tile that started it all, the first find that Mary Chubb describes is a faience necklace, discovered by the team then in Egypt, and written up in the Director’s Report which she has to disentangle and re-type legibly (remember, in the 1920s, typing wasn’t a skill that everyone had had to develop). It sounds completely enchanting, and yet I’m struggling to bring it to life.
In fact I last wrote about it in 2015, and I’m still wrestling with ways to represent it! I’ve already abandoned any idea of working a portrait of it (as it were). As you can see from the black and white photo, it’s crammed with faience beads, and it’s hard to imagine making a good stitchable design of it. So I’ve cut out some watercoloured beads, and pushed them around, taking photos as I go. Back to primary school!
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Then another suggestion came in (thank you @IndiaGraceDsgns ), to think about mandalas…
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And now I’m thinking about “samplers” of beads which still recall the way these broad collars and necklaces are sometimes displayed in museums.
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I’m planning on using flat silks, when I finally pick one (comments, anyone?), and of course, the next question will be: what colour fabric I will be stitching it on?
Yummy! I love the colours. Will you do some sort of padding?
Love those mandalas!
11 and 9 are my favourites. Great colours. I suggest using a light gray fabric, so the colours stand out to their absolute best.
Queenie
I can’t decide on a favorite, but the colors are lovely.
Those are delightful beads, and the bright colours do suggest a grey ground as a foil. Medium-light or medium-dark, perhaps. An alternative would be a brown colour, suggestive of the wearer’s skin. It will be an interesting project, whatever colour you choose.
Love the beads.
You are so clever about these things. I looked at the necklace, which is beautiful, even in black and white, and I thought about how one would ever do that. Then I looked down the post and saw your very creative solution of possibly recreating something with the feel of the necklace, if not an absolute copy. A splendid idea!
I am in no way talented enough to give you any advice on this undertaking but I must say, I can’t wait to see what you decide on doing for this necklace. I love your work.