What a Difference a Color Makes

What a difference a color makes! This is the same focal bead as in the June 1,2007 entry but with a new braid. I had intended to mirror the focal's colors: turquoise, dark amber, and black, in a braid. Unfortunately the result was busy, busy, busy. So, let's put things away and play another day.

I love this bead. It was hand made by Tim from The Beaded Lily in Italy. It's gorgeous: all blue, warm orangey honey, cream, and black; even a couple spots of goldstone inclusions. I happened to take it with me to a bead show. It was a good excuse to go to the show (if we really need an excuse) hoping to find some other beads and finish that necklace. A very nice saleslady from http://www.kazuribeadseast.com/ helped me pick out some nice warm caramel colored beads to bring out the amber in the focal.

Next: how to bring everything together? Better braid colors!!! What goes better with caramel than chocolate? And: just a little flash of a brighter orange (paprika, actually).

And of course, every time I look at it I get a really bad craving for chocolate. Isn't it a good thing this is for sale? (Yup, you guessed it! I am selling something, my secret is out. And if I can figure out how to get the address of my Etsy shop in the conversation, you'll be the first to know!)

Memory Wire: A solution for bad memories?

Whoops! This blog completely skipped/slipped my mind! Looks like it's time for more memory wire! This is another memory wire bracelet, this time with Swarovski "Tahitian color" pearls (I didn't know how gorgeous Tahitian pearls were until Aden Angier posted some of his work on the now defunct Reasonable Insanity. Run, don't walk to the nearest jewelry forum now! He's on a couple of them and I will be adding their addresses soon.) Tahitian pearls have a blue/dark gray/almost black depth to them. The next best thing is a Swarovski pearl.They have the weight of a true pearl. And Swarovski also suggests color combinations for each color of their pearls. So: here we have Dorado (gold AB, gorgeous), indicolite (a clear dark blue/teal) and crystal copper (no explanation needed). How much easier could things get?

Wellll, trying to get the wraps to line up on top of the wrist and wrap around enough of the wrist on the bottom, is enough to make some artisans to swear of memory wire off altogether! This particular bracelet was strung and unstrung for hours. To complicate things, my wrist is a bit smaller than the average size, so I have to be very careful in sizing these bracelets. (Not bragging on my small wrist, am gritting my teeth in frustration!)

So, hopefully, no more long absences. Sharing the delight of creating jewelry is a wonderful feeling. And sharing the frustrations helps to make them a bit smaller.