(With a very special thankyou to Nancy, my FaceBook beading friend, who is such an inspiration and encouragement.)

This latest project was going round and round in my head all night so after several hours of beading in my dreams I got up at 6.15 am yesterday and made a start.

I saw a picture of a bracelet in a magazine recently which used stick pearls on decorative headpins which were then poked through chain and the end made into a spiral. I didn't like the pearl idea much but could see how to do the same thing using 2 or 3 small amethyst and/or quartz chips on an ordinary headpin, which gives the whole thing more texture.

It's great! No fiddly turned loops. No wasting the end of the headpin or having to save it to make something else with or the GUILT GUILT GUILT at throwing the ends away.

I originally planned to make a bracelet but when I saw how it was shaping I thought it would be even better as a necklace. So I designed on the hoof. It's in a Y shape, slightly longer than my usual length. I worked as far round as the collarbone, then alternated chain links with chips on turned loops and finished off with a pair of co-ordinating earrings.

The colours and the way it hangs remind me so much of wisteria. The plant comes in the most gorgeous shades of purple - not as scented as lilac but more showy. In England you mostly find it growing over the doorways of old houses. In the absence of a photo of my own, here's a link:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants1/product/p6632/1.html