For a couple of months, I’ve been struggling a bit with just how best to attach a fringe of beads to a copper envelope. My first few attempts crashed. After finishing a couple of pieces, I wore them around the house, as is my custom with a new design, and realized that, although the pieces looked great, they were not easy to keep in alignment while wearing. So I went back to the drawing table. Finally, just before the holidays, I was able to develop a double strand as pictured on the right. The two hole rectangular beads worked great for keeping the two strands separate and allowing me to attach the bead fringe to the lower strand. I’ve made a couple of similar pieces using this technique. Yet as I remained open to other possibilities, an “aha” presented itself the other day while working with 20 gauge wire. The technique on the triangular piece holds many options for further design. Before folding this piece, I drilled holes on the fold line where I wanted the bead wire to be placed. Then, I used copper wire to go inside the fold, forming a place to attach the fringe. The wire swirls on the top of the fold provided a spot to attach the beaded necklace.

Now I have two options for pursuing my metal pounding habit. I would like to try to minimize this design for a more feminine piece before moving on to more expensive metal.

I think it was Pasteur who indicated that chance favors the prepared mind. It seems that an “aha” that really works creeps into the mind after hours, days, weeks or even months of working to solve a problem. Thus the mind is prepared to recognize the “aha”. Perhaps prior to the struggle, the mind has not learned enough to be ready for the right idea. I must bear this in mind during the “struggling” period and not grow so impatient waiting for the “chance” to appear.