Apparel: Skintenna Top

This fully wearable cami was one of my very earliest finished Big Projects. It's made entirely of glittering black glass beads on matching wire, formed into links and linked to each other, without any jumprings even (back then jumprings weren't in my budget so I had to design things that didn't need them). Black glass teardrops adorn the hem, adding a charming, slightly scalloped effect.

In Japanese chain mail, horizontal rings are linked by vertical rings, and it was that idea of large rings linked by smaller rings, that led me to dream up this pattern.

Being made of highly adaptive bead 'fabric', this top easily accommodates US sizes 8-14 (and usually 16, depending on the individual's bust measurement), and adjusting the size larger or smaller is not difficult. It weighs about 2 lbs (0.9 kg).

Over three months and 85 hours, I worked on this, the final project secret from my family until the evening it was finished. I put the garment on and wore it downstairs and OH everyone's jaw dropped then!

I named it Skintenna after the wearable communication 'nets' in Scott Westerfeld's 'Uglies' series, though I haven't gotten far enough in the book 'Specials' to fully understand what all a skintenna can do.

P.S. Did I mention this is made up of over a thousand of bead links, which means literally thousands of those little loops to link them?

6mm czech firepolished beads
4mm czech firepolished beads
10x8mm czech firepolished teardrops
Black-coated copper wire

Available for sale here: [link]
You can see more of my work here: [link]