It's a good thing I have a couple of months in which to finish this piece. Sanding the beads takes an incredible amount of time. I sit at my carving bench with my magnifiers on in order for me to see all the little flaws. Hand sanding is relaxing but very time consuming.
I'm adding glass pieces as I go, just to break up the sanding chore. Each glass piece is custom-fit into a carved hole, and I have to keep track of what piece goes where in the turning. This is an iterative process. I have my tile clippers at the bench so I can adjust the stem height of each glass "flower." I'm using a piece of foam to keep things in order.
I need to make a lot more of these glass pieces, including some tiny ones to fit in the spaces between elements. I also have some final adjusting to do before setting the pieces in their final configuration. There is a lot of fiddling with this ahead...
