TIF Challenge, Jewelry

I missed blogging on Wednesday because of a trip to Seattle-a 3 hr. trip one way. Of course that meant I had to stop at Shipwreck Beads and buy an obscene number of beads. I also stopped at the college to see the show I'm in. I missed the opening because of a reaction to some food. It was a long day but pleasant. I'm taking Sharonb's Studio Journal class from http://www.joggles.com/ and also doing the Take It Further Challenge http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/ , so this month I decided to combine the 2 and make a collage in my journal.

Here is the Mother of Pearl piece I'm working on. It was given to me by a friend when we were leaving Northern California. The back-lower photo-is too pretting to cover up. I checked a book to see how to cage it, but the directions said to start with 20% fewer beads than fit the edge and after a couple of rows decrease until the beading goes over the edge-doesn't make sense and doesn't work. I don't know why I try to follow directions-did my own thing, and it worked. Now I get to add decorations.