I can't do silversmithing anymore because I don't have the equipment or the space, but I had an unfinished bracelet hanging around my room and Vicky from Raindrops on Roses let me steal her workshop and her solder to finish the clasp.
I made this ring with the leftover silver. Thank you so much to Vicky because I was seriously rusty! I haven't done silversmithing for eight years!
I may not be working with silver any more but I can still work with beads, so I dug those out and started playing. I had to get a few more supplies before I could use some of the beads (and I still do), but here's what I've done so far:
It was getting dark when I took the photos, so they're a bit grainy I'm afraid. Here's the bracelets in smaller groups:
The clear elastic gave me a lot of problems, so I haven't cut the ends off yet. I'm going to glue the knots so they're extra secure and then cut them. The black elastic is fine without the glue so they're cut but I think I'll glue them as well just in case.
I'm on the hunt for wooden beads and gemstone beads because they're what I prefer working with, although none of the bracelets pictured have gemstones in them; I'm too nervous of using them in case I can't find any more. I also want to do jewellery with leather and waxed cord instead of just elastic.
I started working on these for myself, too. They're going to be hair ties - I have VERY long hair and I'm finally bored of having a plain elastic at the end of my braid, so I'm going to wrap these around it instead. They're made with wood, bone (I think) and waxed cord. If I have extra cord left over then I'll make a few more. I've only knotted the beads on the first one at the top, I haven't done the others yet. It's hard figuring out how much cord I need between the two - it's difficult to pull the large bone beads through a knot.
Which leads me to the point of this - I'm going to start an Etsy shop for this blog. Initially it will just have the bead jewellery on there but eventually, maybe I can put paintings and photo prints on there too. I'll make another post when it's all set up.
AND. Since I started writing this blog post, I've made 15 more bracelets. The two on the top row on the left are mine. I've kept three of the rainbow bracelets for myself.
There are 38 bracelets in total now, so that's 35 for the shop!
