Fetish Bear Necklace

This great little bear is hand-carved from deer antler with
inlaid black jet to define eyes, mouth, and paws.  I am not
big on "sit-arounds" (things you have to dust) so I decided
to make him into a necklace.  

The first step was to drill through his neck (a frightening
task for me as I did not want to ruin the carver's hard
work).  I did this with a jeweler's small hand drill, and
hoped I would have a steady hand so the channel  would
be straight.  (Thankfully it went well!)

Then, for the fun stuff... I went through my beads, selecting
several of the most interesting shapes, colors and textures.
The selected beads are made of glass, bone, horn, silver
and amber.  While it still has a rather symmetric look, the
variation of beads on either side make for a more
interesting design.