More beading and an amazing artwork

It's about time I posted something new here, I haven't got much further with the willow pattern piece, I'm actually going through a really awful time at the moment and the effort required to work on my jewellery seems to be beyond me most of the time. In fact I'm going to put this piece aside for a bit and make some simple smaller pieces for a little craft fair at the library where I work in November.
anyway here's where it's got to at the moment.

Willow pattern piece a little further on

I've deliberately photographed it on the beading mat to show the messy chaos that is my workspace. All the pieces are securely held in place with the beaded mounts now, I may give the largest piece one more row, I'm not sure.
I've already started the background around the tiny teardrop shaped piece at the top, it's ok but I'll probably stick to mostly white for the rest of the background, with a few little bits of blue here and there.


On another subject entirely, I was feeling particularly miserable this morning, so to cheer myself up, and get out of the house, as it was a  sunny day I decided to go down and visit Ilfracombe's newest resident. She is a 67 foot high statue called Verity, I expect most people will have seen something about her on the news recently. Damien Hirst has loaned her to the town for 20 years. She stands looking out to sea on the harbour, holding a sword aloft and carrying scales in her other hand.

Here's a couple of shots I took with my little camera today. From landward she is a fairly ordinary pregnant nude, from seaward she is something of an anatomy lesson. I happen to think she is rather wonderful.