September's Project

For my September BJP project, I thought back to this time last year when we were in Lithuania. Amber was everywhere--in the jewelry shops, in the souvenir stores, and in all the street stalls. It was beautiful.

But I wanted beads, not jewelry. I couldn't find any. We even found a bead store in Vilnius, and the clerks looked confused when I asked if they had any amber beads. (No, it wasn't a language problem.)

After several days in Vilnius, I was pretty determined that I was going to find some amber for bead embroidery. Amber beads would be a great memento of the trip, and easy to take back home because they were unbreakable and lightweight. But I didn't want very many beads and I didn't want to pay too much. I finally decided that a necklace of amber chips would do. I could deconstruct it without guilt.

I looked a little more closely at the necklaces and discovered that a 28-inch necklace has a lot of amber chips. Way too many! Then I found a small child's necklace. Just right for my purposes. The amber chips are quite small, 1/4 to 3/8 inch, all the better for embroidery.

These are the amber chips from the little necklace:




If you look closely, you can see the price tag still attached. 10 litas or about $4.00.

The other beads I am using with the amber are here:



This is the tray I work from, with it on my lap and my feet up on the footstool. Usually there aren't so many beads on it all at once.

I started early so my September project is nearly complete. Just another couple of days will do it.

And for those thinking of going to Lithuania or the other Baltic nations, it was a great trip.