I saw a piece of handmade jewelry on the internet three weeks ago. It was a graceful swirl of beads and something that looked like very, very, very thin ribbon. I oohed and aahhhhd and drooled. I spent long minutes staring at it and wondering "How'd she do that?".
A couple of clicks on the mouse and I was Googling "soutache". Heck, I didn't even know how to pronounce the word so it's a good thing Google can't hear. And for the next week each time I got home, I would scour the world wide web looking for clues as to how I could learn how to make this. The blog posts I found were mostly dead-ends -- many of them contained photos but no instructions I could sink my teeth into. So I went to my next go to source of tutorials -- YouTube. LOL.
Two nights later, after typing in variations of the search query "soutache jewelry" (among others: soutache, soutache braid, soutache jewelry tutorial, how to make soutache jewelry, what the heck is soutache jewelry anyway) I finally found something. I waited for the video to play, my hands clasped on my lap like a little girl waiting for Christmas. The lady who had uploaded the tutorial began to speak -- in ITALIAN. Groan.
But I figured I'd watch it and since I learn better visually, I turned off the speakers and watched. And watched it again. And again. And again. And again. And after a while even the lady's glitter nails stopped bothering me so much.
To add to the challenge I even turned up the speakers one time and tried to decipher what she was saying. LOL. (I couldn't but it was fun.)
Two weeks and three days later, I finished my first soutache piece:
I challenged myself to make something a little more symmetrical, more controlled, less free form. This is what happened
After all that metallic soutache I wanted to go back to more earthy tones and this is what I came up with
Persistence does pay off.
