Indian Agate Coil Bracelet

I decided to spend this lovely warm afternoon making the next kit from Simply Beads, the Indian Agate Coil. This bracelet is made with memory wire which I have never worked with, and various shapes and sizes of Indian Agate, black stone and freshwater pearls.

Indian Agate is also known as fancy jasper and is considered a semi-precious stone. It is an opaque stone that comes in many different colors and patterns and is believed to eliminate worry and depression and promote mental clarity. Black stone is a generic term for semiprecious stones that are dyed and polished and fresh water pearls are, well, fresh water pearls.

I actually liked this kit as is, without any tweaking, and it was pretty straight forward. String the beads on the wire and secure the ends. Of course when I had it finished I decided that is was a little too wide for my wrist and I ended up taking off a coil or two. The memory wire was a little more difficult to make a loop in than the other wire I have been using, but not impossible. I bought a pair of special cutters for the wire which cut it like butter. I tried my regular "hardware store" cutters on the scrap and they did a perfectly good job too.

This project was very easy to do and looks nice with the semi-precious stones. It would be a great project for kids. Give them a coil of wire with one end already secured and an assortment of beads and let the budding fashion designers do their thing.

Shell Pendant Necklace

I had this nice round shell pendant with a hole in the center, left over from my first project, Seaside Ensemble. I wanted to do something with it but wasn't sure what so I set it aside and waited for inspiration. It didn't take long to be inspired!

Penrapture and I went to South Hadley's Tower Theaters to see Alice in Wonderland with her boyfriend and a couple of other friends. (This is the best theater in the area because they actually pop the popcorn and use real butter.) The girl at the counter had a white stone pendant wrapped in a black twine that I found to be very interesting. I immediately thought of the black leather cording I had stashed in my box of goodies. It would work perfectly and I wouldn't have to go to the bead store to get more supplies!

Some few days later I found time to drag out my box of goodies, in between the packing and moving. I played with the leather and figured out the design I wanted but as I was working with the leather, pieces of it was flaking off. By the time I was finished, the leather was all chipped up, stretched out and it looked terrible. I guess leather doesn't last over a decade stored in a plastic bag, in a box, in the attic. Looks like I need to go to the bead store after all!

It took awhile to get back to the store and during the wait another kit had arrived. And of course, I needed a special tool for this kit too. I am starting to think that the bead kit company has stock in the craft stores. Anyway, I picked up new leather cording (and the tool I needed for my next project) and finished this simple pendant necklace.

Southwestern Style Watch

My second Simply Beads kit came quickly after the first one. This time it was an Abalone Watch and Earrings kit. While I initially liked the picture, when I got the beads out I discovered that I didn't like bright blue bicone crystals with the subtler blue and green of the abalone shell beads. Off I went to the beading store again to pick up some substitute beads.

I brought home some cool bent silver spacer beads and some small turquoise looking round beads. To this I added the heart shaped clasp from the necklace in the last kit and I was ready to go.

My intention was to use these beads as a substitute for the blue bicone crystals and the flower spacers but I quickly discovered that my tiny wrist didn't have enough circumference for all of the beads. I played around with the bead arrangement for awhile and then decided to just keep it simple. The photo at the right is my final revised design for the Abalone Watch. There is no abalone in the watch at all so I had to rename it the Southwestern style watch.

It looks a little too simple in the picture but on my wrist it is nice. Now I have to figure out what I am going to make with the abalone shell beads that I didn't use. It will probably require another trip to the bead store.

Reintroduction into Beading

I have been using beads on my quilts for years and I have even dabbled in the jewelry making realm a decade or more ago but the beads and materials that are available today at your local craft store inspired me to check out the beading world again.

My first trip to the local beading center with the plan to break into the jewelry realm left me overwhelmed with inspiration and clueless where to begin. It just so happens that around the same time I was pondering getting into this new hobby I received a beading kit subscription offer in the mail from Simply Beads. I thought about it for a couple of weeks before I decided, why not. I can always change the designs that I don't really like and it will expose me to materials and techniques that I have never worked with.

My first kit arrived after what seemed like a painfully long time. I was excited to get started but I quickly discovered that the crimp pliers they sent were not the right size for the crimps in the kit. Great! Another trip to the bead store and another $20 later I was ready to go!

When I finally sat down to do some beading I found that I didn't really like the design of the necklace, bracelet or earrings. Typical me. I played around with different stringing options and decided to substitute the purple bugle beads with some dark brown E beads that I had floating around. I didn't like the shell pendant in my new design so I left that out too. I also used a more secure clasp on the necklace. Below is my final redesign for the Seaside Ensemble necklace.

I used three strands like the original design but brought them together on the sides of the necklace instead of in the center with the shell pendant. The color palette is more brown and earthy than the lighter sea colors but I expect either color scheme would look good.

I did learn a couple of tricks while assembling this necklace that wasn't in the instructions.

If you need to put away a wire beading project that you are working on, a good way to secure the beading you have completed is to tie the strands in a loose knot, like the picture on the right.

If you don't have enough free wire to do that, you can loop the end of the wire through the last bead to keep the rest of the beads from falling off during assembly or storage.

I have to make the bracelet and earrings next, although the earrings are not inspiring me at the moment. Stay tuned.