Sometimes, just sometimes, the bead goddess smiles.
Always on the treasure hunt for new components to bead with, I found these gorgeous sparkly pieces in a store for costumiers and dress designers. So a Scintilla is a tiny trace or spark of a quality or feeling, a spark, a glimmer, and that is how these components appealed to me. Little memories of dressing up to go somewhere special, magical moments filled with that lovely feeling of anticipation. The next part of the story happened in a little haberdashery store in France, a properly traditional store that stocked everything you could ever want with needle and thread in hand. I found some very fine, soft as butter faux leather which I knew would become the background to the sparkles.
Designs take shape, more elements are discovered in the store cupboard and the fun of bringing them all together begins.
The crystal components are edged with beadwork, adding little petals around each Navette crystal. Then, it switches to bead embroidery to fill in more detail. With a beautifully crisp metallic paper leather backing, an edging is added. More details of beading for the bail and pendant and it is done. I chose dainty Ball chain from my favourite British manufacturer, to add that little frisson of casual to the crystals. You can find the kits in three gorgeous colourways here:https://heatherworks.co.uk/products/scintilla-pendant