Wednesday 15 February 2012

BTW - What's On My Bead Mat, 15th Feb 2012

I really must make the effort to blog more than just bead table Wednesdays! I always say I will plan ahead and schedule posts, but this rarely happens...too much on my plate at the moment, beady and otherwise. 

Apologies for the rubbish photos today - it's horribly grey and dreary here in Cambridge today so the natural light was pretty much non-existent...not the best thing when you want to take pictures of something sparkly!

I came about the idea of making beadwoven charms for charm bracelets (which seem to be very popular at the moment) after a friend suggested a charm bracelet as a leaving present for another friend who is off on an exciting new job adventure for 6 months, and that everyone could get a charm to put on it to remind her of us. Well, I thought I would best remind her of me if I made a charm myself, so I rooted around in the sparkly section of my bead boxes and found a gorgeous tanzanite purple Swarovski rivoli. Size was a key factor as I'd looked online at some of the other charms my friends were planning on buying and realised my finished piece couldn't be any bigger than 2cm! Fortunately the tiny rivoli I had proved to be just the right size and I was really pleased with the finished result - and, since have several more rivolis in this size that I bought for a different idea that didn't work out, I have decided to make some to try selling in my online shops. Today's bead table Wednesday photo shows last night's first attempt at making another - this time with a rivoli in a beautiful 'montana' blue.



I've added a little more embellishment around the crystal itself on this latest version and I'm trying to decide which I prefer. Here's a quick snapshot I took of the first one before it went off to join the other charms on the bracelet.


Once I've thought about which style I like best, all I need to wait for is the Sterling Silver clasps and jump rings I've got on order so they can be attached to a charm bracelet, and they will be available online. The rivolis used come in all sorts of colours, so they could be completely customisable if you wanted to give one as a gift - perhaps a birthstone colour for a birthday present?

Hope you enjoyed this week's bead table Wednesday - I am still working on the necklace I showed last week but I haven't got much further with it so I decided to show you these new charms this week instead!

Nicole 
xoxo

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a cute little charm. Very pretty- and what adorable tiny rivolis!
Gemxxx

June said...

Its gorgeous, I bet it will sit lovely on that Charm Bracelet. June x

HollybirdBeads said...

Thanks Gemma & June. The one I made for my friend's present did look nice on the bracelet we got her. It's made me want one now!