Here sits the little monkey in his guilded cage – he knows he could get out if he wanted to, but he’s probably tired after performing too many tricks!
The monkey is one of a set of hand-carved turquoise stone beads I bought from China via the internet, as I explained in my May Bead Blog. I wanted to put him in a cage because I think he reminded me of a circus or performing monkey. The cage had to have a Chinese theme so I chose delicas for a precise structure and used 24K gold ones (because I just had to)! As there were 6 little sections on the top and bottom, I made an attempt at some simple characters to decorate it.
The tassel is made from embroidery silks and gold thread, with an odd-count, peyote, beaded band and long dangles holding down the netted head of the tassel.
I hardly ever use delicas so it brought back to me what a pleasure they are to use.