Dreaming of Byzantine..

I've recently decided to pick up an old hobby of mine to help keep my mind off of snacking, stress and all those other little things that get a girl off track on this wonderful Sparkly journey to good health.

That hobby is making jewellery. I've been beading for years now, but have always wanted to learn the art of Chainmaille. About five years ago I tried it and failed in a very big way. In part due to lack of patience, time & definitely the poor choice of materials at the time.

Now I have time, better materials and what about patience? Well.......... I'm working on that! I think I'm off to a good start though. Four days in so far & I've managed to squeeze out a couple of ok pieces. I know that years from now if I'm still working with maille I will look back and giggle at the amateurishness of my early work, but then again maybe not. Maybe I will look back and say "if only I started sooner.." The same way I do when I look at the scale every Monday morning!

My "goal" maille weave has been the Byzantine. It's been giving sooo much grief these last few days and I was about to just give up on every being able to learn that beautiful link. Then last night I had a dream that showed me what I was doing wrong & how to resolve it. The first thing I did this morning (after coffee & getting DH up & moving that is..) was try it out, and lo 'n behold, it worked.

I made my first byzantine link.



You can't imagine how happy that tiny little thing made me. Especially considering that I am soooo *not* a morning person..! Of course, one link led to two links, two led to three and so on & so on.. I wound up with a new band for a watch face I had laying around.



Not bad for a first attempt, even if I do say so myself!

Over the weekend, to ease my frustrations of not being able to "get it" with the Byzantine weave I made what I call the "Knock Off" necklace. Inspired by a good friend of mine back home who has recently started making & selling her stunning creations.



DH thinks I should start my own online shop, he's been trying to encourage me to do that for years.. maybe one day I will. It may sound strange, but that dream last night.. well.. do you believe in fate? I believe in the power of dreams & last night was just one more personal piece of evidence to me that there are other forces at work in our lives. Anyway, before I get too hokey let me just say this..

It's good to dream.