My First Collar

So towards the end of may I finished my very first bead embroidered full collar. I was so relieved to finish it and I love the way it turned out. I named it the Celtic Bride Necklace. My husband took all the lovely photographs down by the creek near our apartment which turned out to be a stunning backdrop.

I had created this necklace for the Esty Beadweavers monthly competition. For June it was to create a bridal piece for the theme "June Bride". I figured the majority of people would probably be doing something in shades of white, so I wanted to do something a bit different. 

 

The centerpiece of this collar was based around a gorgeous vintage glass button from Czechoslovakia. I purchased this button at a bead show in Richmond from Karen Thomas who is the owner of The Queen's Beads which is based out of White Oak, PA. You can find her here on facebook. The two brass stampings I ordered from and etsy seller named BareNakedFindings and the 3 square swarovski slider beads I also got from etsy, from a seller named PeriwinkleBlueGap 

The collar features an art deco themed, double locking, box clasp in gold over sterling set with crystals. The inner circumference of the necklace is approximately 17 inches and the width of the necklace at its widest point measures 4 inches and at its thinnest point measures 1/2 inch. The whole collar is backed with a dark green Ultrasuede for a clean look and soft feel against the skin.

In my mind I kind of imagined a wedding scene like this would go along with this necklace.

Yes this is a scene from Braveheart...... but this was kind of what was going on in my mind while making the necklace. Anyways.... as I had said in the beginning of my post, I was entering it into a contest for the Etsy Beadweavers. So I entered my piece, and I didn't really expect anything to happen but low and behold, my piece won first place! I was blown away, I had never expected my first necklace to win anything.You can see the whole list of competitors and their pieces here. Also, the necklace sold to a lovely lady in North Carolina only four days after I listed it.  So all in all a happy ending to this fairytale wedding piece