November EBW Challenge Piece

I listed my November EBW Challenge piece earlier this week.  The theme for this challenge is Twisted.  You can read more about it here.  You can also see a breakdown of the glass beads that I used here as well as an in progress shot here.  To briefly recap, I've been designing a line of herringbone bracelets and wrap bracelets/necklaces for 2012.  When I found out that the theme was Twisted, I knew that this would be a perfect opportunity to make a sneak peek twisted herringbone piece for my line.  For some reason, I decided that it had to be in blue.

I was originally going to mix all of the blues together but I decided very early on that it would be better to do twisted stripes of light, medium, and dark blues.  It brought out the twisting in the design much more...and it made it a lot easier to follow where I was with the stitch.  Now that I've worked it once, I might be able to work it with a single color or mix of colors more easily.

As always, the embellishment work was a lot of fun.  I loved pulling all of the different blue Czech glass and adding it in after I'd completed the base.  Since I'd never made a twisted tubular piece before, I didn't know how well this embellishment technique would work, but I'm pleased with the result.  The beads follow the twisting pattern and rest comfortably against the bead work.

This piece can be worn as a necklace or a triple wrapped bracelet.  This is the first time I'd photographed a necklace with my new display in the light box.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I can easily add an extender chain of any length to this piece which furthers the versatility possibilities.  I've been wearing a couple of my new herringbone pieces this past month as part of my process to "test drive" the new line.  I am pretty picky about bracelet size, but these pieces really do fit a range of wrist sizes.  I haven't custom designed any for myself and have still worn several of them comfortably.

I'm not going to add charms to all of my herringbone pieces.  I love having the focal for these longer ones that can be worn as necklaces, though.  The herringbone works as a necklace on its own, but I love how the focal anchors the whole piece.  For the focal, I used a leaf charm with a piece of drilled sea glass from Kristina of akkricket.  I've been holding onto a batch of glass for a while and am so glad I have a new use for some of it.

My challenge piece is available for sale here.  I will do a preview post before Christmas of what else I've been developing for my new line.  I have a bunch of different color combinations and styles in the works.  If there's anything you'd like to see, let me know.

Voting for the challenge will take place November 9-15.  I'll have all of the voting information here when the challenge starts.