I have these stone frogs for sale. I haven't sold even one.
I think I have figured out a reason though. It was because I had this necklace in the back of my mind and I didn't really want to part with them. The design took awhile to come together. Lots of starts and stops, reworking, rebeading, rethinking. I wanted it to look a little Egyptian. Like something a princess or queen would wear. I wanted the frogs to be on lily pads and each one of course had to have a little crown! You know the saying "You have to kiss a lot of toads to find your prince."
The "vine" took awhile because I didn't just want the lily pads to be just hanging from a rope but rather have the connection between the two to look as if they are one plant. It took a bit to get the lily pads to have folds and curves in them so they didn't just look flat and the frogs just stuck on. Tension with the stitching was the key to the folds. The pads needed veins but not too many to distract from the frogs. I also wanted the clasp to be "hidden" and not obvious. Quite a bit of design issues.
Overall I love this necklace. I think it turned out just as it was supposed too!
Thanks for listening.
Shibui