A long while ago Paul and I made a device for winding sock yarn ready to be dyed in stripes. Which, when I got into weaving, turned out to be even more useful as an adjustable warping board that could easily be dismantled and taken places. I’ve also used it as a raddle when warping the table loom. The pegs are lengths of dowel with wooden beads glued onto the ends.

I’ve had a bag of leftover beads since then, and had ideas about painting them. I was thinking more along the lines of dipping them in opaque gloss paint, or painting designs on them, or drawing on them with a sharpie then varnishing.

A few weeks ago I was lamenting that my collection of nail polish is larger than my enthusiasm for painting my nails these days and my inability to keep the paint from chipping before I get to whatever event I want to wear it to. Then a flash of inspiration came and I was off to the studio to paint some beads.

The beads look great – all shimmery and pearly. In my jewellery-making box I had some leftover short lengths of leather, so I got some wire and other findings and soon had this:

Which as a first, spontaneous design works okay, but I don’t love it so I may take it apart some time in the future and string them up in a different way.

I’ll definitely be painting more beads with nailpolish, though. Heaps of potential there.