Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Handmade Holidays Idea #9 Beaded Jewelry

Another Christmas Swap I sent out has been received. This one was a surprise pick based on your partners profile, and in a Christmas/Winter theme. Mine liked the colours turquoise and pink so this is what I ended up with. There is a flower shop that offers beading classes quite close to my home and still having last years Christmas gift certificate in my hands......I booked a private lesson on bracelet making. They let you pick out any beads you were interested in , let you pick a layout and showed you how to use the crimping beads and tools to string up the bracelet. I ended up adding the snowflake charm a few days later after I realized the swap was to be in a winter theme. I figure she can switch out the seasonal charms as the weather dictates. The longest portion of time was spent arranging the beads in a pleasing layout........and this is really a matter of personal choice as you can see. If I had been thinking more when I made this, I would have put in another split ring about a 1/2 inch in from the end to make the bracelet more adjustable since I had no idea how tiny or how big the wrist of the recipient was going to be.........but this was my first kick at the can. I can see that going down the road of beading could be a very large money pit. It's so easy to buy beads like candy hoping for the right time or project to use them. Much like fabric and yarn I guess. No need to contain my purchasing addiction to just fiber I suppose? Now I have some beads that I picked up at Michael's on sale just waiting to make something with.....Now if I only get some tools for Christmas.....I'll be all set.
Along with the bracelet, I sent a few other turquoise and pink things and this felt ornament as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I love the little charm danglies : )

Dave Robertson said...

Good work! What a nice present!

--Dave
at Rings & Things