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.

Further Creations, New Designs

It is my misfortune on this adventure not to have all the proper tools of visual record-keeping. Not only do I lack a fully-functioning digital camera, but I also am still learning how to photograph my work well. So we will all have to bear with some blurry pictures, I am sad to report. But that is part of the adventure! So, onward!

I am pleased to present to you my next four pieces (made in summer 2011). These pieces are not especially magnificent, but I was quite excited to have completed them. I was just starting to get the hang of things, and I even got to experiment with some new elements.

In this image there are four new creations, as well as my first bracelet (the green one). The silver one with the pendant is a necklace, and the others are bracelets made of copper.

Here is a close-up of the pendant. Those who know more about jewelry-making than I will see how clumsily I attached it to the necklace. I am still searching for better ways of doing this, as I intend to make more pieces with pendants. If you have ideas, feel free to suggest in comments.

The copper bracelet below is made with the double-knit technique. It's quite a different look than the single-knit used in my other works, and it cannot be made quite as small in diameter as single with wire of the same gauge.

I am rather proud of this next bracelet; not only did I craft very it quickly, but it also represents the introduction of beads into the loops. The winds were strong in my crafting sails that morning! The beads are wooden; the wire, copper.

First Bracelet

These photos are from the very first bracelet I ever made, summer of 2011. 

This bracelet was a milestone for me, not just because it was the first, but also because it spoke to the forgiving nature of the technique; I had fully expected my first try to look much worse than this.

See my next attempts in upcoming posts!