Glass, Wood, Shell and Stone Beaded Sheath

A beaded sheath fit for a young goddess!

My inspiration for this sheath came from the 4500 year old Egyptian sheath.

The two glass necklaces in above photo were the starting point.

I inherited a bunch of other necklaces, many shell, some wooden and stone, that I just don't wear but thought I'd use them for something, someday.

That day has arrived!

The most important aspect for inclusion was for hole size and blendability/cohesiveness.

The thread I used was a heavy-duty nylon used for stitching sailcloth.

I snipped the necklace cording and arranged the beads into piles according to size and shape.

I then started creating the general form of the two triangles for the bust.

The horizontal band for under the bust would be strung as one piece.

I used a ladder stitch.

I did the right and left sides separately so that I wasn't dealing with a cumbersome, overly long string.

I drew out a net design for my beads to figure out how this was all going to develop.

Addition of wood beads in matching, tonal colors.

I needed to allocate everything correctly, symmetrically, and with aesthetic balance.

I fed individual long strings, about 30", through every other bead, to support the above and below netting structures.

Even with the sketch underneath the beads, there was still some trial and error.

Up to this point I had invested about 4 hours into the piece.(the second triangle went a LOT faster)

After the second set/tier I needed the assistance of a needle threader to get the thread through the beads on the outsides, as the threads were compounding.

These would be primarily used to frame the top triangles.

I had plenty leftover to carry through into the the net structure beneath.

Based on what I had of the wood and stone, I would need a lot more beads to create the bottom structure.

I had a lot of shells to help with that demand.

Incorporating the stone and some wood with them would provide a nice transition/blending.

I finished off the bottoms using the shells as the last beads as they had the smallest holes, sealing them with a bulky, triple knot.

After creating the knots, I used Frayblock to solidify the knots.

After drying I clipped all the strings, leaving 1/4" tails.

I made a tube from dupioni silk to create a fixed, halter neck band.

Using a running stitch, I gathered each end to fit around and over the knot.

I stitched everything through and under to ensure a strong fasten.

After sizing around my neck, and cutting to size, I gathered the other side in the same manner.

Another, much longer tube was used to feed through both ends of the horizontal band(under the bust) to be tied behind the back.

What a great shot!(and a good sport for braving the frigid temp)