Beaded Headdress

So, I found this blue stone at a gem show that Jesse dragged me to, and I had to get it for my sister, it was just the right color and not too expensive. I keep waiting for someone to invent blue cubic zirconia, they have most of the other colors, but no blue yet, so this is lab grown spinel. Way more affordable than a natural 14mm sapphire, admittedly less romantic. So then I had to do something with it, right? Right. I was thinking, get a snap fitting and chain from Rio Grande, pair it with some blue leaf beads I’d gotten for her previously and make some matching earrings. But then she goes and suggests that head dress from the movie version of the Never Ending Story. Well, okay.

And then, whoa! Somehow with my ‘unique’ novice beading skills I end up with something that looks more like a Bollywood headdress. But! Rebecca, recently having watched the Never Ending Story looked at it and said, “Oh, it’s like that thing the princess wears in the Never Ending Story!” So, I guess? Win?

I started with a ring of 5 shockingly tiny beads, I’ve only recently become aware that seed beads even came in different sizes… These are from Japan and sized ‘super small’. Okay, they aren’t labeled and I can’t remember. ‘Super small’ was truthfully not part of the actual product description. 🙂

It just sort of grew and grew. The part where I wove a pentagonally symmetric net around a square stone was interesting! Luckily no one told me it was a dumb idea before I started, and it worked! Mostly.

Taking a more distant look at it, now that it is no longer right in my face, it’s really no where near the 10 on the overdone Bollywood scale that I thought it was. More like a 2, maybe a 1! Whew!

And here is my baby sister who’s head I crammed it onto just before she got into the Rolls-Royce to begin her honey moon! Lucky girl is in the Caribbean now!