Beading Back in Time Reveal: Early Human Edition

It's that time, folks!  Today's the day we get to show you the pieces we've been working on for the second installment of the Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge - the Early Human Edition.  I went into this planning to do something with a rustic, primitive feel to it.  I really wanted to make something inspired by the hand print paintings found in caves, like this:

Something about them really speaks to me.  I think it's the connection with a real live, breathing human who placed his or her hand against the cool stone and blew pigment over it to leave these stencil prints so very long ago.

I wanted to knot hand outlines and then surround them with random free form macrame in a wide cuff, but when my first experiment with knotting a hand print turned out looking like an alien hand, I decided to rethink that strategy.

I still think there's potential for this concept, but it is going to take a lot more tweaking and I ran out of time.  (Making a mental note to come back to this at a later date.)  Then I thought I could adapt the idea a bit and make a sort of freeform necklace with handprint charms. I spent days researching until I found the perfect charms.  I liked these because they would hang right-side-up in my design and I thought the spiral had a sort of cave painting vibe.

And then that project didn't happen, either.  By this time I'm a week away from the reveal and I have nothing to show.  Luckily I had done some other shopping.  I had some components on the back burner and this piece from Star Spirit Studio really appealed to me.  It has the handprint and a horse drawing that would look good on any cave wall, and absolutely gorgeous colors, too.

So my piece is not really primitive and rustic.  It's for the refined cave woman with more discriminating tastes.  This cave woman isn't living in some nasty dark and dirty cave. Her cave is located on some nice lakefront property with a sweet view (and a cleaning lady who comes in twice a week).  While the others are out hunting and gathering, she's having a nice soak at the natural hot springs.  She might even find time between the hot stone massage and picking up her fur dresses at the cleaners for a mud facial.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:  Caveman Chic

That's it for me!  I hope you will take a minute and see what everyone else dreamed up:

Lindsay Starr, Phantasm Creations
Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame <--You are here
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jean A. Wells
 Stephanie Haussler, Pixybug Designs
Susan Kennedy, Sue Beads
Michelle McCarthy, Firefly Design Studio