August's creative challenge

I have a plan. Yup, a doosie of a plan :) This poor blog has been stagnating of late, a sad reflection on my lack of creativity so........ to kick start my creative mojo, I'm setting myself a BIG goal. Ready for this?

Forget that we've missed a few days already in August, ok?  

Ok:)

So THE plan is I intend to make something every day for the rest of the month. There! Down on virtual paper for all to see. Now I have to do it! I know the track record is none too good of late so for all of you out there either picking yourself off the floor from shock or dealing with the stitch you've got from hysterical laughter, I'll just show you what I made yesterday to give you time to recover, ok? :)

So here is the lovely beaded bracelet I've been working on yesterday evening - aren't those beads so scrummy? I found the pattern on the 'Oh, I've lost a whole afternoon pinning lots of yummy pictures' place, Pinterest :) Come join me if you love the pinning! Anyways, you can find the tutorial for this over at the gossiping goddess blog. Seed beads, jump rings, a button and a bit of cord for threading and that's it. The fun is all in playing with different beads to see how different the pattern looks. I tried three different versions from coloured wooden beads, chunky glass and finally these pearly seed beads. The seed beads won hands down, although I'd like to try a chunky boho, hippy version with turquoise stones too - ooh, yum!

You can find another gorgeous version of this design by Marilyn at Room on the left. I love her choice of beads - just stunning - go look!

Pearlescent seed beads - 4mm

When you start beading you think you have a lot of beads in your stash and suddenly it dawns on you - you. just. don't.

No way, not even close. I thought 68 x 4mm beads, sure, I must have plenty of choice. But lots of all the same beads, there were none. Odds and ends, yes, but nothing on that scale. And jump rings? Whew, I had some left over from making earrings a while back but that's me cleaned out already just making one bracelet. Time for buying some more on ebay I think!

So I went a wee trip to get some nice sparklies to work with and these were the aqua ones I decided to use. Being a newbie to beading, I just read 4mm and concentrated on the colours to buy - as you do:) When I got them home, I realised they weren't round and the hole is definitely off centre. The label says 4mm magatama (blue lined aqua AB). I hope this makes sense to someone so they can explain it to me!! Not that it mattered too much in the making as I quite like the good fit the teardrops make. It gives the bracelet a very compact and dense feel which I might not have discovered otherwise. I like happy accidents!

Sparkly :)

I'm in two minds about the choice of dark cord. Both the beads and button are transparent so the dark core is that much more obvious and gives a deeper bluey/purple band from a distance - which I rather like. A lighter cord would work better but then would it give as good contrast? It also gives a more relaxed feel to the bracelet, which maybe doesn't work so well with the jewel-like beads. It will be fun to experiment more. Overall though it looks great on and is so comfy to wear - good fit, lightweight and, of course, sparkly:)

So I'm running on a creative high right now, yay! Which I don't want to lose, nooo :(  So do cheer me on for a full-on creative August. I'm leaving the techniques open - it may be crochet tomorrow or sketchbook doodles, or just experimenting with a new stitch, as long as I keep on making! Suggest away if you've come across a new knit, crochet or jewellery tutorial or stitch you think I might like - or join in to keep me company, that would be cool! Creativity likes company :)

I have no idea as yet what tomorrow will be so this should be fun!! See you soon :)