October 20, 2008

This One was Fun

Robin Atkins introduced me to finger weaving and it's become a favorite technique to use up left over beads and treasures.

This bracelet has been sitting beside the side of the couch, waiting for the finishing touches - the beaded knots that hold the button on. I finally got them done tonight. I used the start of the bracelet as an example for a workshop and then had fun playing with different elements to see how they might work up. Elegant jewelery it isn't but .... it was fun to make and see what happened. The colored safety pins are an example of using whatever has a hole in it. The wooden propellers are something I picked up in Feb. with the idea that they would work well in a finger woven bracelet - I was right! The button closure really isn't a button, but a wooden earring piece that I drilled two off set holes in. It works nicely as the bulk of the button sits nicely on top of the loop and doesn't leave a huge bare area. Now I'm going to try a bracelet with a mixture of purple and lime green wood propellers.

I noticed a problem the other day and am uncertain what to do about it. I picked up two of my freeform peyote bracelets to photograph as headers for a re-vamped web site and both of them had broken edge threads. One is 3 years old and the other is 2 years old and have (maybe) 6-8 hours of wear each. I've used size "D" C-Lon or Nymo, nylon beading thread. Yes, I can repair them, but if they had been sold, I'm sure their owners would have been upset. Is it my tension - is it the threads - is it chipped beads - or something else? I cull my beads as I work ,but I do tend to have extra tight tension. Anyone have any ideas of what might be happening?




The green and white ones have broken edge threads.
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The black and amber bracelet, which is about 6 years old and made with Nymo is just fine despite many more hours of wearing.


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