Serendipity Put to Work

It screamed at me: aqua blue wire and aqua blue beads. I had been searching for two separate supplies, wire and clasps, and here were two that matched perfectly. How could I leave the store without them?

Well, when I got them home, I had a problem. I only had 2 clasps and enough wire for two bracelets. This meant that I only had two chances to make something out of my good luck.

No pressure. Not.

For a little while, all I had the courage to put together was a bracelet with no extra adornments. Then when I was only faced with one more option, I became a bit paralyzed. I didn't want to mess up my last shot, but I also didn't want to settle for making another plain bracelet. 

The end of the story is that I realized I was being silly, and I just went for it.

Below are photos of the two bracelets sitting on my wrist. 

As you can see, I chose to compliment and expand on the dark brown of the clasp with the variations of brown in some wooden beads. Here are some close-ups of the chain itself.

An additional lesson: in a past bracelet (see here), I introduced beads into the weave without damaging the chain. In that bracelet, the beads were visible between the wires, which I think was successful for the design. In the blue bracelet above, the beads are starting to "hide" in the weave. This was not what I had planned on. Whether or not it makes for a successful design is up to you to decide.

Taking a Chance

After trying beads once before on a piece (see the copper bracelet from this post), I wanted to try a different look. I aimed for a more elegant and flashy design.

Here is the product, a bracelet made with 24-gauge silver colored wire and black and red czech glass beads.

I read somewhere that it is inadvisable to pull the wire chain through the draw plate when you have woven beads into it. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the terminology bullet points.) However, I have done exactly that with this piece. I was nervous to do so, because, it IS in fact, a bit inadvisable.

Why? The beads could have warped the wire mesh, making it messy-looking. (That may have been OK, or it may have been just ugly.) There was also a slim chance that I could have broken the chain trying to pull it through the draw plate.

But what brave Viking doesn't take some crazy chances once in a while?

Learning Length

In making my second necklace (single knit, without a pendant), I had to overcome an error -- I had made the knitted section too short. As I have said, VK is a fairly forgiving technique, but there is a point past which you cannot add more material to the end of a length you have already made. 

So, I had reached that point of no return when I realized my mistake. What to do? It was too long to be a bracelet, and too short even for my skinny neck.

Thankfully, I had some beads on hand. The brown wooden beads coordinated fairly well with the bronze-colored copper wire. As you can see in the photos below, I simply strung a few beads on a single length of wire at the end of the knitted portion.

This is not the most symmetrical solution, but it serves its purpose. The asymmetry might in fact be a useful (and purposeful) design element in future pieces. Nonetheless, in the face of a piece that I have made too short, I think that this isn't a bad answer.