Raspberry Ripple Bangle

Well, Mummy has certainly outdone herself!  Check this bad boy out:

How gorgeous is that?!  I love the tila beads through the centre and the way the look like stained glass peeping out the rippled edges of the wings.  Those seed bead edges also completely threw me with their perfection!

This outstandingly gorgeous bangle is available in our Etsy Shop here. 

Sparkles and Spikes Bangle

In my last post I teased a little...  I said that I'd made something similar but a little more bonkers...

Well here it is:

I call it Sparkles and Spikes and it just makes me laugh every time I look at it because it was such an unbelievable joy to bead! Horns, wings, rivolis suspended in mid-air? Yeah baby, it's got it all!   It's a bit of a bugger to photograph though!

As you can see, I kept the pallette pretty simple, using only silver lined crystal and silver lined smoke delicas to complement the Swarovski rivolis in black diamond.

Starting with a simple MRAW band of 84 units, I increased the plain silver mid section into horns with enough space between them for the rivolis to sit quite happily between them.  Then I turned my attention to the smoky wings and increased them just enough so that , using one of the beads in the bezel as the tip of the wing both top and bottom, the rivoli would hang there, away from the bangle.  I wanted them to be close to the tips of the horns but not quite as far out - mainly to give them a bit of protection but also so that the horns attack first!  Surprisingly, the wings are exactly half the number of rows as the horns, even though they look so very much shorter to me.

The inside of the bangle is nice and smooth on the inside.  It's pretty stiff and solid but squishes down just enough to get it over the hand - phew!

I do hope you like it and that it makes you laugh as much as me!

It is available in my Etsy shop here.

Golden Chocolate Rick Rack Bracelet

Oh my goodness it's been a while!  I didn't quite realise just how long it had been though!  Ooops...

Anyways, I have been incredibly busy with my needle, thread, beads and a smattering of Swarovski rivolis and am pleased to show you my latest bracelet:

As you can see, I used Jean Power's amazing Rick Rack pattern, started off by using the incredible Contemporary Geometric Beadwork MRAW start.  As this isn't the first Rick Rack bracelet I've done, I also made the Double Layer Rick Rack bracelet last year, I noticed that those delicious v shapes could be perfectly filled using Swarovski pear shaped crystals.  This got me thinking....

I used MRAW to bezel the Swarovski crystals (I used 18x13mm Pear Fancy Stones in Golden Shadow), which was surprisingly easy on the hands.  The stones didn't pop out or misbehave in any way whist I was beading - highly recommend using this method of bezelling!

I used delicas in Dark Bronze Matte and Galvanised Light Champagne Duracoat for the front.  I used the champagne for the ladders in the MRAW on the stones so decided to echo that in the main bracelet as well and then do a zigzag stripe of the gold to really draw those crystals into the design as a whole.

As you can see in this shot, the bracelet is double layered.  It could work single layered but I think that because I decided to use the bigger crystals, the body needed to be much more sturdy than a single layer.  I'm a tight beader and even one layer of rick rack is pretty strong but I really didn't want this bad boy to buckle over time with lots of wear! The reverse of the bracelet is just plain matte dark bronze as there was no need for there to be any ornamentation as it generally won't be seen.

It was finished with a simple gold slide clasp, the loops of which were securely attached and hidden inside the bracelet to give it a fully finished and sleek look.  

I must admit that I'm really proud of how well this bracelet turned out.  It sits really closely to the wrist (well, mine anyway!) and looks quite chic and elegant - not my usual style at all! It is exactly what I imagined when I first put needle and thread to beads - that never happens! I hope you like it too.

It is available in my etsy shop here.

I've also finished another bangle that's along these lines but a teeny touch more bonkers - I'll blog it soon!

Tangle Of Angles Bangle

Whilst I was off work, apart from the Raven Star Bangle, I also started another bangle. I decided to go way out of my comfort zone and make something out of colours that I personally never wear, silver lined bronze and gold lined cream.

 I call it the Tangle Of Angles Bangle because as I was making it, I decided to really push myself on the number of horns and gave it 14!  The most I'd ever done before that was 12 and my goodness it was such a tangle to bead!  The beadwork decided to be such a tangle that it was an absolute horror to bead and took about four decreasing rounds (and an obliging can!) for it to become round and bangle shaped.

 I also decided to add in an Elegant Guide Round (video) that Kate McKinnon came up with, which I hadn't played with before.  Even though I didn't embellish the EGR in any way, I am a definite convert to this technique and will never stitch in the ditch again!

 After I did one side with the EGR, I just suddenly lost interest.  My stitches had reopened and I just couldn't face doing any more beading for a few weeks so my amazing Mummy finished it off for me. 

 I think that going with the zigzag edges really completes the piece.  I always tend to go with straight edges or wings but I wanted to try something a little more elegant this time, lending itself to the colours (get me trying to do grown up beading!).

It is available in my Etsy Shop

Rainbow's Revenge Bangle

Yesterday, I finished the Rainbow Reverie Bangle, today I finished a bangle in the same colours but with a much more vicious look which I have called Rainbow's Revenge.

As I was beading up the Rainbow Reverie, I had an idea to put something in the ellipses between the wing joins.  I had hoped to put in some dyed howlite skulls but unfortunately I got my basic band size wrong so that had to go back into the thought processes for a little more stewing and I went back to my bead stash and found that the skulls had come with some absolutely fantastic dyed howlite claw spikes.

I just thought, hey, why not?! and started adding them.  Blooming tricky though - the more spikes I added, the more the thread caught on them!

 I love that the inside edge is the same as the Rainbow Reverie but the whole look has changed by the addition of those funky spikes!

 From the top you can see that the bangle is actually quite slender - the spikes are what give the bangle depth and punch.

I know it won't be to many people's tastes, it is pretty outrageous, and quite heavy, but I love it!  I love that it is bonkers and that the person who ends up owning it will never be able to type wearing it - or do much of anything practical!  It's a statement and it is totally unapologetic and that's what I like about it so much.  It is what it is and doesn't make any bones about it!

It is available to buy in my Etsy Shop

Rainbow Reverie Bangle

So I decided to make something with a little bit of colour.  As you know, I'm not good with colour at all and tend to steer clear, but I just wanted to really go for it, like I did with the Jester Cuff.  I didn't want to emulate it, more create a sibling for it and this is what I came up with:

 Originally I wanted to nestle dyed howlite skulls in each of the ellipses but I made the wings too long and the bellyband too thick for it to work.  I still have the beads on my tray though so...

I love how the view from the top looks so utterly simple and undulates so smoothly.
 

 And it was my first foray into using the luminous delicas.  They're a bit fab and very bright (you can't tell in this picture how bright that pink is, you'll just have to trust me!).

 Each wing tip is joined and the whole structure is extraordinarily solid. 

I hope you like it.

Available in my Etsy shop here.

Raven Star Bangle

My most recent make is a bangle that has been more therapeutic than anything I have ever made before.  As I have previously mentioned, I went into hospital to have a lump removed from my breast.  Unfortunately the wound got infected and my stitches burst, which has been rather difficult.  Luckily I have had the most amazing support from my family and my other half, they have been so superbly strong and marvellous.  All is good now, I'm just healing slowly.

I decided to take advantage of the recuperation time spent off work to make a study in form, eschewing colour and concentrating solely on what I could make the delicas do. 

Rather than make a usual start of an MRAW length that would be the smallest part of the bangle, I decided to push myself and made a zigged MRAW chain that would become both the tips of the horns and the very inside of the wings where the spines were 2mm cubes:

As I decided to do the whole bangle in gunmetal (simply because I had the most beads in that colour), each zig and zag was marked with a tie of white Nymo so that I didn't lose myself when adding in the next row.  It was huge - 174 MRAW units!

Slowly I added rows and rows of gunmetal delicas and it started to change its form, almost looking like a Zig Wing by Kate McKinnon.  Then I turned my attention to the other side and it slowly started to open up, like a flower:

The more rows I added, the more the form became apparent.  It was working!

As it opened and both sides began to have the same number of rows, it really started to lie flat and become, not what I had imagined but what it needed to be.

It is certainly big and takes no prisoners!  I can't imagine that there will be many that actually like it but that is okay, good even.  This bangle is a symbol of strength, and whoever does decide that they like it and wants it then I hope they feel as fierce and as strong as I felt when I was making it.

It is available in my Etsy shop here

EDIT: I just received the most wonderful screenshot from Kate McKinnon - it is being included in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Volume II and I have contributed the pattern to the Pattern Library so you can make your very own!  I'm so excited!

Vicious Business

I finally finished something!  This is a new bangle based on Contemporary Geometric Beadwork techniques that I call Vicious Business.  It is an evolution of the Pink Pinstripe Ruffle Cuff that I made a couple of years ago.  My lovely friend Johnti Greybeard saw it and said that it would look awesome if the wings joined around horns like the Red Many Horn.  That idea has been slowly cooking in the back of my mind, stewing, forming and reforming until I finally got round to putting needle and thread to beads and this is what happened:

 

I used my favourite red delicas ever - Opaque Cranberry - for the horns and Black Opaque wings with Gunmetal pinstripes (to pay homage to it's originator).

The horns are (small for me) 15 rows high and the wings join at the centre point so they frame the horns in pretty ovals, softening the look - but only a smidgen.

Mummy's Shape Up Bracelet

Mummy has been at it again...  She has been playing with Tila Beads and decided to see if she could use them as the MRAW start to make all sorts of chunky different shapes.  Once she'd made a handful she decided to sew them all together and voila, a gorgeous Shape Up bracelet!

The bracelet below is the original gold and gunmetal design that she used.  Not colours I'd ever put together but my goodness it works!

Here you can see all the shapes laid out and how deftly put together they are.  This bracelet is delicate but chunky.  It doesn't slide, just sits close to the wrist and the look totally depends upon which of the elements you have showing. It's a very comfortable bracelet and doesn't interfere with anything you're doing. 

Then the cheeky minx that is Mummy decided to have a rummage through my opaques because she decided that where the gold and gunmetal was elegant and grown up, bright keleidoscopic colours would turn the same bracelet into something entirely different! And doesn't it just?!  It's playful and fun and I love this so much more than the gold one above.  It's reminiscent of Liquorice Allsorts (yummy!) and that makes me think of happy summer days playing in the garden when I was little.

In this final picture below you can see how Mummy has used a dressmaker's popper for the closure.  A simple little tab for one half and the other half sewn to a baby square.  So lovely and so seamless when on. 

Mummy's Crazy Psychadelic Pyramids On Acid!

You may remember my Pyramids Cuff from a while back, the pattern I gave to Kate McKinnon and was chosen to go into Contemporary Geometric Beadwork vol.1? Well, Mummy decided that she wanted to have a go at this pattern and gave it her very special spin!

First of all she tried making a pyramid that faded from dark pink at the tip to pale pink at the base but had to stop because it looked so much like a boob that I couldn't stop snorting and giggling!  Yes I am a grown up!  Clearly some colour ways just aren't good for pyramids!

Instead, she decided to have a nose through my delica stash and her eyes very quickly alighted on my duracoat galvanised delicas. The witch!  She loves bright colours and the duracoats made her squeal with delight.  Luckily she decided that the underneath of the pyramid should be a plain colour so as not to wear off the colours underneath.  She chose a simple smokey grey delica for that.

The colours must have reminded her of growing up in the 70s because she decided to set herself quite a challenging pattern of turquoise and orange spiraling out of a pink base.  Quite possibly the maddest thing I've ever seen but I blooming love it!  The crazy pattern with the crazy colours just work and can't help but make you feel as though it's a bright summer's day and the sun is shining and all is groovy with the world!

As you can see, she chose some bright Swarovski rounds in turquoise to join up the pyramids, with an orange delica between the two.  Her pyramids are a lot smaller than mine and a lot busier so she wanted to leave a bit more of a gap between them and I think it really works!

And finally she decided that a square base for the clasp would work a lot better than the triangle that I made. 

I love it!  Crazy and happy and all round mental.  FANTASTIC!

Double Layer Rick Rack

It's been aaages since I last blogged.  Probably because it's taken me a good long while to make my newest bracelet!

As you know, Kate McKinnon recently released the amazing Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, an absolutely astounding book which I reviewed here and which you can buy here (USA) and here (UK).  I loved the zigged MRAW band so much, and after seeing Jean Power's absolutely exquisite Double Rick Rack in her book, Geometric Beadwork, which I reviewed here, and I just knew I needed to put the two together!  Jean shows how to do a flat Rick Rack, which is what I wanted to make, rather than a bangle.  I wanted this cuff to sit close to the wrist and her method of turning was so elegantly simple that I was quite frankly blown away!

I decided I wanted to use a black opaque background and then use a really bonkers mix of galvanised delicas.  I literally got all the duracoats  I had in my stash and mixed a great big dollop of beads (which I'm really not looking forward to separating out again).

Here I am after only a few rows of beadwork on each side.  Using the zigged band was fantastic because it meant that the sizing was pretty accurate even after just making that. I was a bit dippy doing all of the MRAW in opaque black though - when I was joining the two layers at the end, it sent me quite cross-eyed trying to follow where I was!

I had a hell of a time doing both layers together though, the thread wanted to wrap itself around all those gorgeous points pretty much every stitch I made.  I really ought to figure out a better way of keeping my thread out the way!

In this picture you can see that the top open layer just wanted to go every which way! 

And then I was done - finally!  The bracelet from the back looks quite dull in this photo but in real life you can really see how the beads change direction and the difference in the way the light behaves off their surface.  I like that this bracelet could be worn this way, as although it doesn't really pop with colour, the direction changes and the overall thickness gives it quite the impact.

I sewed through the turn beads on the ends and all I did was attach jump rings and a slide catch.  To be honest I may change the jumps to something slightly smaller so it sits a tiny touch tighter on my wrist but they were all I had to hand when I was finishing up this evening.

And  here is the finished bracelet, face on.  Hope you like it.