Jingle Jangle Bangles

Every so often my hands need a break for the hand stitching most of my beadwork requires.  Sometimes I just want to cut loose and do “something completely different” as Monty Python would say.

Over the weekend I went digging through the bead bins, looking for things I haven’t used in a while; beads that seemed lost and forlorn, the bumpy beads I bought when I first started, stuff that was cluttering up the table even.

These three bracelets are the result.  They were such fun to make!  Lots of silly colorful beads all hooked to link bases.  One link.  Two link.  Red link.  Blue link.  It’s even  fun writing about them.

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Golden Ore

Not exactly flashy, not exactly demure.  Somewhere in the middle, wouldn’t you say?

I think the golden magatamas would glint in the beam of a miner’s lantern, showing the way to riches buried deep under the earth.

Thankfully, this bracelet is right here in the open, no digging necessary.

Stitching this makes one pay attention.  Those magatamas are very directional.  Thankfully the center druks and the joining 8°s are not.

Everything is held together with a nice strong clasp.  Click!

Baubles

After spending what felt like forever on the kaliedocycle, I needed a beady palate cleanser.

Something simple which didn’t require too much thinking.

Crescent beads and a newly arrived package of two-holed cabochon beads were just the ticket.

Of course, me being me, I had to try a completely different thread path for the second bracelet, to see if it would assemble differently.  It did.

Not better. Not worse.  Just different.  Now I’ve a mind to try the same basic design with a few modifications, and see if I can’t get an sine wave going.  That could be fun.

Seaward

While sewing has been happening, there’s also been some beading going on.

An order of curved tooth dagger beads arrived a week back and I just had to make something with them.

Enter Seaward, as in heading to the sea.

The bracelet was loom woven, using a mix of blue galaxy tooths (tooths.  I just love that word) and chrome finish seed beads.  The whole is anchored with brushed steel end caps and a piscean clasp.  Edges are reinforced with a picot of silver beads.

Here Fishy Fishy!

Spiny Lizard

Admittedly, there’s nothing particularly reptilian about this bracelet, but hey, the working title was Gila Monster, and saying it was monstrous seemed worse somehow.

Playing with curved tooth beads in a cool copper color.  I believe it’s copper galaxy.  Anyway, they’re not a solid color but a blend of copper, steel and grey.  There are also shiny grey 6° in the piece.  Something to let the teeth drape, rather than clatter against each other.  While this bracelet looks hard and spiny it is in fact very flexible, rather like liquid mesh.

The edges are protected by a petite picot of copper beads.

For the Guys

All my beading to date has been with women in mind.  But this single-gender-ness got me to thinking. What about the guys?

If you look in the beading magazines and project books, anything targeted as being for men is simple and, well, boring.  A strip of leather.  A silver clasp.  Done.  I don’t think men are quite so simplistic.

So, as another self-imposed (I was about to say self-inflicted, but these were too much fun to make to get the “inflicted” designation) design challenge, I created something I though men might wear.

These are three-prong herringbone, made with Toho 8° triangles.  Supple but not drapey.  Cord-like.  When Prince Charming saw them, they got a big thumbs up.

While not for everyone, they are for someone.

Ziggurat

This bracelet was an experiment in free-form weaving.  Not free form as in absent warp and weft, but free form as in design.  I had no plan when I started, other than it should be dark and goth-like.

It was intended as a gift for someone, but alas, I have not yet perfected sizing my loom pieces, and it fell short of her wrist.  Pooh!

That said, I remain pleased with it.  The clasp is pleasantly hefty and solid, the woven band is nicely tactile.  With the sizing exception, it turned out well.

The black background highlights the Mardi Gras colored design, with it’s peaks and ogees.