TTB and...shaligrams continued

You don't read this blog for music recommendations but boy oh boy, if you want to hear SENSATIONALLY good music, listen to Everybody's Talkin' by the Tedeschi Trucks Band.  It is SO rocking my world right now.  So, so good.  Wonderful to create with.  To move to, to mime to, to deeply listen to.  Oh I wish I could sing like Susan Tedeschi.  Or even just sing.  Let alone play a musical instrument.  But gee can I wriggle in time nicely.  Some may call it dance!  La, back to the polymer.A few weeks ago I wrote about playing around with ammonites and shaligrams as sources of design ideas.  Not so much playtime lately but you know, you grab it when you can.  I promised myself that I would actually make some of these pieces up too.In Nepal a few years ago, my darling husband gave me a necklace for our 25th wedding anniversary.  (He knew I was short of stuff to hang around my neck)  It was a modified traditional Rai coin mala (the unmodified are quite heavy and even I have limits with respect to comfort of jewellery) and I adore it.  The necklace is made of overlapping discs and I want to make some polymer necklaces using this design.  My ivory coloured ammonite mala combines discs of an ammonite cane that have been stitched (hand-stitched!) to a plaited Tibetan katak or traditional scarf.  It was time consuming and I need to work out another way to hang the discs so they don't flip so much but I was really happy with it and love the combination of the smooth spirals and the feathery braid.  And you leave little ivory thread memories of yourself wherever you go.I also cut thin slices of all the canes I made last time and arranged them on a couple of my beloved cuffs covered in the ammonite colours.  And cooked, sanded and polished.  It was one of those where I didn't mind all the sanding and polishing because of the effect of the polished metallics and translucents.On a separate "grabbed" occasion (let's call it meal preparation time-we had lazy pasta instead of the usual gourmet fare*)  I  played with my shaligrams.  Another project very close to my heart.  I combined black, silver and pearl in roughly folded Skinner Blends to create the effect I wanted and then spiralled them, texturing with a credit card and beading tool.  And then rolled roughly 104 flattened discs (which were meant to be graduated but didn't quite look it) which I then interspersed with Nepali pote (seed beads).The dark and light results of a happy explorations.  And... in case you're counting that's necklaces 24 and 25.  If you happen to be near Flourish Arts in Sydney, two of the pieces I made are now for sale there - one cuff and one shaligram pendant (Not shown).  I have to prepare for my ladybird class now but will report on progress!*It's all relative isn't it?