31 Days of Clearning: Day 9

Day 9: Making My First Necklace

Today's clearning project did not involve permanently clearing something out, but it was about clearing/cleaning a space and through that, I found some learnings.

Over the weekend I had some friends over for a beading get-together.  Two of the five of us know how to make jewelry and they were helping the three of us that don't.  I had purchased a starter kit a couple of months back and was anxious to use it.  We were together for 5 hours on Sunday and by the time everyone left, I had barely positioned but a few beads on my bead board.  I spent time making fruit salad, opening wine, playing hostess and just enjoying everyone's company.  I spent more time visiting and watching what other master pieces other's were creating and really didn't accomplish much to speak of on my project.

That night, and a little bit on Monday, I repositioned the beads and started seeing some hope of a design.  Since I'm a beginner in this area and bought pretty, shiny things that I was attracted to, I didn't know what to look for and ended up with beads meant for a double strand.  Well, these are the beads I want to use, so a double strand it is.  So now I had beads laid out on a board and then had no idea where to begin in terms of measuring wire, getting the beads strung (especially since it was two rows merging into one), and adding a clasp or anything else one needs to finish a piece of jewelry.  So there sat an unfinished project on my dining room table that I didn't know how to complete.

I really don't like to leave things undone and this was a challenge that I needed to wrap up.  Today, I wanted to clear off the dining room table and put the beads away.  But I can't put something away until it's complete, so armed with a tip from Stacy that I needed to have two strands that both fed through one bead to become a single strand, I took a break from work this afternoon and sat down to finish the necklace.  I wasn't sure how I was supposed to handle a couple of parts, and I didn't know how to put on a clasp or do finishing touches, but I dove in anyway just to see where it would take me.  And ... I finished my first necklace!  Well, almost ... I have beads on two strands but no clasp.  So I have my first almost necklace!  It's complete enough that I felt fine about putting all of the beading materials away.  So my dining room table that looked like this:

Is now back to the way I like it:

I learned or reaffirmed some things through today's clearning project too.  I already know that I like to finish what I start.  It still bothers me that I only blogged for 25 days during "30 Days of Thanks" and still think about going back and writing about things I'm thankful for, for five more days.  I really don't like loose ends and leaving anything incomplete that I've committed to.  I also already knew that I like to figure things out and take pride in doing a good job.  And this exercise reaffirmed that if I don't know how to do something, I'll do what I can to find out and I love learning new things. Also, I'll keep working and do what it takes to finish a project.  What was new for me is that I just dove in, not knowing what the outcome would be.  I'm a planner -- sometimes I think about things when I should be acting on them.  So I learned that I can act even if I don't feel completely prepared or knowledgeable. 

And (other than the wire hanging out at the ends because of no clasps), I'm really happy with the end result.