Chain Maille Bracelets and some coloring

Wow, the last day of January already. Where did the month go in my craft room? To be honest, my mess creativity is never confined to just my craft room. Currently I have a knitting bag on the living room chair with a new project in it; an old project upstairs in my bedroom for insomnia knitting; a recently finished knitting project on the ironing board in the kitchen (it blocked there overnight); fabric and patterns in a bag on the floor of my craft room waiting for the mood to sew to strike; and for the rest of the room I'll be generously kind and say it looks like I've been busy. 

I'm keeping up with my journal entries in the planner (see my previous post) and have found a combination of Prismacolor pencils that pleases me for hair color of the two gingers in my life, my grandkids. 💕 I have a few stamps from Roberto's Rascals line at C.C. Designs Henry and Twila don't look like my grandchildren, but colored this way, they certainly remind me of them. The lines you see are part of the journal pages. What doesn't show in the photo are the sheer sparkly highlights of rain on the window and the gossamer wings and skirt of Twila's dress. Her wand is sparkly also. All of the coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils. Twila didn't stamp with the heavy handed eyelashes, that was done to fix an ink smudge that was an accident.

 

My longest friendship is with a woman named Connie who I have known since we were in kindergarten. We won't discuss how many decades ago that was!  Her birthday is today and this is the card she should be opening right about now:

We also won't discuss whether we resemble these images but she is blonde and I've seen her wear green and I'm often in blue and have previously dark hair with silver highlights. Sounds better than gray, right? This stamp is from Art Impressions and was colored with Copic markers.

I'm learning to do chain maille jewelry. I don't know how far I'll go with this but these are two versions of the same pattern. The company that wrote the instructions calls this Japanese Lace but I'm guessing there is a generic name for the pattern that I haven't discovered yet. The illustrations were clear but the directions left a bit to be desired. I figured out the printed mistake and made these bracelets from rings purchased elsewhere. They are slightly larger than the kit contents and were easier to handle while learning this technique. I will make the kit bracelet soon. The detail is most clearly seen in the red and silver version.

This one is shinier with both the copper and silver rings having a different finish than the above version. Both bracelets have magnetic closures which I may change as they might drive me crazy, especially on the bracelet below. The magnets want to hold onto ALL of those silver rings!

It is time to check on the project on the ironing board. I hope to post positive news on that soon.

Beads, beads, beads

Sometimes I like bead patterns where I follow a chart and work in peyote stitch like this Santa bracelet:

Sometimes I like a pattern that requires a little thought, but not as much detail, such as this necklace:

And sometimes I sit down to make a simple repair and look at the beads I've collected and decide to just string them into simple necklaces and bracelets so I can enjoy wearing them. That is what I did a few days ago. 

This bracelet broke last December when I caught it on something and pulled the clasp loose. I retrieved all the parts and restrung it, needing only a new wire and new crimp beads to hold the two parts of the clasp in place.  I think of it as a Christmas bracelet because the striped bead between clear floral shapes remind me of wrapped Christmas candies.

 

I've been known to wear a necklace or bracelet for quite some time and decide I want to change the mix of beads. That was the case with this bracelet. The blue and white beads were in a bracelet I seldom wore while the blue and silver beads had been asking to be used for quite some time. I didn't have enough of them for a necklace and didn't like various bracelets until I mixed the striped ones with them. I like this. For now. 

I like yellow and wear yellow or colors that work well with it often. Both sets of yellow beads have been in a "to-do" basket for ages. These pieces might be taken apart at a later date if I find something I like better but I wore them yesterday and was happy. The bracelet is on a stretch cord. The clear crystals on it and both the clear and yellow crystals on the necklace are Swarovski crystals. You can't beat them for clarity and sparkle. 

Three more done on stretch cord. Actually, four more since I made two with the topaz-y beads seen here. The butterflies are copper in color, but not actual copper. 

Carnelian red with a few clear crystals to make it a comfortable size:

Summer fun colors, rather neon in tone, wouldn't you say? They remind me of candy necklaces kids wear but much brighter:

There are colors I am always attracted to but neither green or gray are my typical choices. On separate shopping expeditions, I couldn't leave the green turquoise in the store, nor the gray clay beads. The stones are a bit more green than what the photo shows, but you can still see the difference in coloring from what most of think of when we hear turquoise. That shade would be the first necklace above. 

The background of these beads are gray with green undertones and there is a dull purple in the flowers. Not my usual palette at all, but I had to have them!

The last bracelet of the day is one I will wear often. The barrel beads are black but have a lot of color and sparkle beneath the surface. There is a name for this, but it escapes me. The bicone beads are Swarovski, the color is fern I think. The faceted round beads between the crystals are inexpensive beads from a craft store in black with a iridescent finish. 

Can you tell I like jewelry?  Don't let anyone dull your sparkle!