I am working on a new project commission and getting to play again with colour, shape and form.

The commission is for a peyote stitch project "for a necklace that shows beaders how to work dimensionally with sculptural peyote stitch". Which of course is something I love!

In addition I need to keep the project interesting enough for an advanced beader but easy enough for someone with less experience.

I have also been given some colour guidance (which I don't have to use) but, after my recent colour frustrations with the blue necklace, I thought it might be good for me to work with a palette not necessarily of my choosing.

There are 7 palettes in all, with enticing names such as "Happy Days" and "Crayon Box", and they all seem very scrummy and as I look at each one it soon becomes my favourite.

However, as I ponder the project, I soon fix on a palette named "Urban Skyline". It contains greys, lilac, sky blues and a kind of brick red. This really appeals as my mind is full of thoughts of looking at urban skylines and seeing the shapes and colours they contain. The name of the palette and the colours it contains seems to match with the style of necklace I would bead- even though I have no idea yet what that will be.

Usually when I bead a project it has begun long before I start it. They seem to form as thoughts, ideas and "what if?"s in the back of my mind and at some point they begin to grow out of my bead mat. It may be immediately after the thought, but often it take years before it becomes a physical object.

This project though will grow out of nowhere and that's not something I often do.

So I begin by gathering many tubes and bags of beads that I think fit the palette (and a few more I can't resist throwing in) and placing them on my mat. I then look at it in horror!

I soon realise that choosing colours in the dark light was a mistake (you think I would learn) and that I have put lots of tubes of white on my mat.

I hate white beads (possibly even more that plain old sky blue) and whip them off immediately. Everything feels better right away. Besides, this is England, our skyline is far more murky grey than bright white.

So I sit down and ponder my beads. After a five minute panic, when I convince myself that not only can I not come up with anything, I never will be able to again and I probably can't bead any more anyway.

Panic over, I soon remember an idea I had a long while ago about beaded beads shaped like icicles dripping from a neckwire. I know that this isn't the shape I want with this project, but the basic premise of them on the neckwire fits with what I would like to bead.

So a few more minutes pondering, and beading something completely the wrong shape just to get me warmed up and convinced of what I want to create, and the work begins to take shape.

I decide on triangles and lots of them. All beaded in different colours and in different sizes and heights to reflect the differences you see on a skyline.

I want a necklace full of beaded beads you can thread on and off to alter the colours and scale and so I get started.

So, even though I had planned to make a new piece from nowhere the idea was just sitting there in the back of my mind waiting for me to take the time and sit down and let it grow.