Sit down for a minute and....

So, I hauled everything into the house on Saturday and decided to just sit and make jewelry. I haven't put any bracelets together lately and want to have things to sell over the holidays here at the little shop we're planning to have open at Frog Hollow, our Christmas tree farm. I actually put 6 bracelets together, but in the interest of brevity (for now) I'll only post three.

I had a number of sets lying around that I haven't posted on my website for sale. This---> one was my first floral experiments with the Kalera press. I love the shape of these beads and the flowers just float there on the surface. I used three different colors of purple for the petals and there's some silver inside to shoot a bit of light through the smoky base. I used my favorite - a magnetic clasp. These things are really strong. I've been known to raise my hand at a restaurant with a fork attached to my bracelet! The spacers were from a large string of purple beads I had left over from trying to match up with some spacers I made earlier. I was having trouble with "striking" the color. As it turns out. I'm grateful now to have the lovely selection of purple beads.

Actually, this bracelet "Denim & Khaki" was made a couple of weeks ago. The colors are my favorites to wear, jeans and a cream colored shirt or khaki colored pants and blue top. I was looking for something to wear with it and decided to just sit down and make myself something. I think it turned out pretty well and it certainly matches jeans and anything neutral... The cream colored spacers are ceramic discs I picked up at Beadfest a couple of years ago and they come in handy so often.

Finally (for today!) I call this one "Victorian Cranberries". It would be perfect for Christmas, but the colors are not the usual garish red and green, but more cranberry and greenish aqua (copper green). It just looked so formal that it needed a bit of extra goodies... some bead caps and a fancy bali magnetic closure. I was thinking of adding some matching round beads in the main bracelet like the one on the "dangly", but it just didn't make it... The silver bead spacers worked better with the more "formal" feel I was going for.

It's amazing how easily they go together after you've been thinking about them for a while. The Purple bracelet as well as the Denim one were in my head before I even began. The Victorian one was the hardest to finally pin down... I bet I tried 5 or 6 arrangements before I was satisfied.

Believe it or not.... we've actually been making soap like crazy the past few days. Somehow, the shelves had gotten depleted beyond the norm and, of course, the fax started cranking out orders!