it's all about the tiles

after some ranting and minor household upheaval I finally located the pin vise so I could drill some little holes through this cool resin block --- required to be able to attach it to the bead work

I was able to drill 5 tiny little holes in places that were buried deep in the carving so that the tiny (size 15) beads that I used to help secure it are really hard to find in person -- and they don't show at all in the picture

once that part was done I started adding the beading around it --- I'm hoping to get most of the rest of this beading finished today



I spent time trimming all of the already completed tiles too

then laid them all out on the drawing that I had originally done to figure out how many and what shape these needed to be

I'm pretty amazed actually --- while I was focused on each individual tile it was pretty hard to visualize what the finished product would look like  --- couldn't see the necklace for the tiles!

now that all the trimming is done I can figure out which piece of leather is big enough to be the backing for all of this -- and I can start making all of the pieces for the hinging

onward!