Nancy Dale Style Wrap Bracelet

This neat wrap bracelet was made from a pattern by my friend Nancy Dale. Not only is she a sweet person and an amazing designer, but she's obviously a smart cookie to come up with such a clever and attractive way to use a variety of stray beads. This is the perfect project to use up things you only have 4 or less of, and also a lovely way to showcase a smaller lampwork bead, as I've done here.

In addition to the lampwork by MZGlass, my bracelet is made with Japanese seed beads, two-hole Czech beads, Swarovski pearls, assorted Czech glass, and some beads that are either tiger's eye or brown cat's eye. I love it because it's sparkly, but also kind of casual so it's easy to throw on with a pair of jeans or a sundress.

Rick Rack Mountain

It is time to get caught up on posting my recent beadwork! This is a double rick-rack piece based on the design in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. Kate McKinnon took the photo (my photos are never this clean and clear). It's woven from Delica beads and tipped with tiny Swarovski crystals, and has a gorgeous green silk ribbon running through it. The colors remind me of lush green mountains with a blue waterfall spilling down them.

I like that I was able to use some nice emerald green colors in this one, in fact I think this was the first piece I made when I decided to put emerald in everything this year. By the way, as you will see when I post more of what I've been working on, I have not been sticking to that plan.

Thanks Kate!

I woke up in a bad mood this morning, because I didn't get enough sleep and for some reason I immediately started thinking about things that annoyed me. Then I saw some annoying stuff on Facebook. Then there wasn't anything decent to eat for breakfast. But THEN, Kate McKinnon suggested that I come over to her place so she could photograph my "Crooked Muse" hornwing bracelet and we could take a dip in the pool because the weather was perfect. Things just went uphill from there!

Kate took some really lovely shots of my bracelet from all angles. I love how magical it looks against a clean white background! Plus she said lots of nice things about it, and then when she posted it on the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork page on Facebook, lots of other people had nice things to say. So my ego is good and stroked.

And it really was the perfect day for a swim. Not too hot, not too cold, sunny, gorgeous blue sky. I managed to stay in just long enough to cool off and relax, but got out in time to avoid a sunburn (of course I sunscreened, but I am oh-so-pale). I'm still tired, but I'm not at all cranky!

By the way, I mentioned earlier this year that I was going to try to work only in shades of emerald this year, and while this bracelet is definitely teal, there's emerald in it! The main color is DB1764 Aqua/Emerald Lined AB, and the size 11 accents are emerald iris. I've got two dresses in this exact shade of emerald-teal and I've seen a lot of things that color in the stores, so it's a hot one right now. I suggest you all bead something in this color.

Books and beads, my two addictions

 I love to buy beads, and I love to buy books about beading. But too often, they sit around unused. So I've been trying to use more of my beads, and also to actually make some projects from books and magazines. Towards that goal, I made this bracelet from "Great Designs for Shaped Beads" by Anna Elizabeth Draegar.

This is an awesome concept for a book, because I know I'm not the only beader who has excitedly purchased a new style of seed bead, only to be totally stumped on what to do with them. Take the Tila beads that are in this project. I see a lot of designers doing great work with them, but I have not even tried. I took the easy way out and waited for a book project to grab me! It also let me use some size 10 Delicas (which helped dictate the color palette because I only had 3 colors, because I never use them).

The instructions and illustrations in the book were really clear, I was able to make this bracelet over the span of 3 nights while watching a DVD (I also worked on other projects, so I probably could have done it in 1 or 2 sittings if I'd focused). Another nice thing is that Draegar provides alternate options for a lot of the designs, so if you only have a few Tilas leftover, you can whip up a ring to match, or if you like a necklace but don't have enough beads, she scales it down to a bracelet.

I like this design enough that I might make more in other colors, but I think I should delve into another book first!

Dragon Queen's Cuff

Here's the other bracelet that I made to be included in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. It's a series of "what-ifs" coming together to make a multi-layered, richly textured bracelet. The ribbon runs through a channel and can be removed and replaced with just about anything. I made it the perfect size to hold a crystal bracelet (like this one), but I could also make a peyote band, or a herrinbone rope, or a collection of chains. I could use Wire Lace and tease it into weird shapes. The possibilities are endless!

This bracelet also represents my attempts to start to play with my usual olivine and bronze color scheme. I used antique gold instead of bronze, and added some earthy yellow and a tiny pop of orange.