Shibori silk necklace for I Might Make That! Monday

Silk on silk necklace from Sonoran Beads

Today's post is especially for Patti of All Fired Up!

In October, I went to BeadFest Texas, where, in addition to taking a metalsmithing class from Lexi Erickson, I of course bought a boatload of beads from the vendors.

I never did post a pic of my haul, but I did purchase a couple of one-yard lengths of shibori silk from Sonoran Beads. I bought some for Patti, too, because I thought it would make beautiful stringing material for her gorgeous fused glass pendants.

At the Sonoran booth, they had a necklace on display--it wasn't the one pictured, but it used the same technique of the gathered silk accented with beads. When I got home, I looked online for a pattern on the Sonoran website, so that I could show the effect to Patti, but they didn't have anything.

Last week I got an email from Sonoran that showed the pattern, so now I'm delighted to share it with everyone. Sonoran calls it Silk on Silk, because the hand-dyed shibori ribbon surrounds silk cording that they also sell. Basically, you make a long tube out of the shibori silk by sewing the long ends together with a running stitch, then thread the cord through it, bunching the shibori in a pleasing manner. Since the inner cord is concealed, I'm sure you could use any cheap cord you have around. Accent beads are sewn on that I imagine help the shibori keep its shape.

Here's a link to other free projects from Sonoran Beads.