Too heavy ... but gorgeous!

While waiting for the propotypes to come back, I'm doing research on some Straits Chinese pieces and fiddled around with adapting them to a beaded design. I try to stay true to the colors, but after a while, I observed that for silk satin stitches, the glow and irridescence of the threads make the piece glow. However, transferred to a different medium i.e. beads, larger patches of the same color can look boring and monotonous. Beads are different, they don't give themselves over to subtlety too well, they are rather blingbling. So I've switched track and listened to the beads and the designs have become rather colorful, and fantastical, at times. Here's an example of a vintage piece that has inspired me. :)

My mom's really backing me up on this project. She loves handiwork, though she's amused that I want to resurrect old forms, but she likes the twist in the colors and coordination that I'm giving to them. She says though that if I want to make larger pieces like the vintage piece which was a table top cover, they can be too heavy. That's very true. I'm not sure if people are ready to accept large display pieces too, and there are many slips between cup and lip. But I'm giving it a try. Probably a different piece from the one above. I'm fiddling around with a Penang Straits Chinese table cover done in satin void stitches. I've done some adjusting for the peonies, but they don't transfer well over to beads, so I will work on the colors once I get the design transferred over. That will likely take a few weeks at least! I did 5 peonies yesterday, it was a real strain on the eyes. One of my faves.