I've been swamped with work I should have done a week or two ago, had I not suffered from the vilest of fluey colds. Fluey cold is now tempered down to a fairly nasty cough and occasional mild shivers of the distinctly endearing type which always remind one of the approaching middle age.

However, as I learned a few years ago, always a good idea to preserve one's mental health at least. And during an exceedingly busy day, said preservation is best done by having a creative break. Thus I took a bit of silk, some pearls of the oddest colour I've ever seen a blind pearl dyer stoop to, and a couple of Swarovski I had already given up on as a misjudgement on my part. And voilà.

Fleur de Lys is actually so much better looking than its materials promised that I'm quite pleased with myself. 6mm fresh water potato pearls in what can only be described as the colour of the stickiest snot I expelled last week and 4mm Swarovski purple velvet bicones knotted in golden yellow silk. The whole rope is about 90 cm long.

I did crop and sharpen the photo a bit, but no artificial colouring this time. Gotta love the 4000 k lamp I got to light my lightbox.