Looking at the beautiful things other people create inspires me to get moving and create something pretty myself. Whenever I see a sparkly, intricate design for a piece of jewelry or a creative figurine, my fingers start to itch, and I want to know how it is done, and to feel what the finished piece feels like in my hands. I just love the way many pieces of beadwork feel: niecely heavy, very smooth, and pleasantly cool with a fun massagey effect. 😉
This is why I have subscribed to the Beading Daily newsletter*. They send me a lot of information, a lot of which I don’t usually read and some of which concerns techniques, such as wireworking or weaving medicine bags out of pearls, that I don’t like.
But!
They have tons of free patterns available online. And I LOVE free patterns! Of course I pay for patterns as well and have a couple of books at home, but having so many beading possibilities at my fingertips, instantly accessible, is simply a great resource for everyday inspiration!
In one of their free e-magazines, there is a very pretty, but simple enough pattern for a Pearl Flower Bracelet by Nadiya Pakosh. The bracelet uses buttons as a base for six pearls forming the petals of a flower. I think it was this new-to-me technique that intrigued me most about the design.
A friend of mine got married a couple of months ago, and I had an idea for a gift: I wanted to wrap my money gift into the four elements from the “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”-saying, the “something blue” being a beaded bracelet. When I saw the abovementioned pattern for the pearl flower bracelet, I immediately identified it as the one I would use, with blue faceted glass beads instead of pearls.
Here’s the wedding gift:
I packed a small gift box in such a way that the single elements, each containing a 20€ note, would be found in the correct order. The box itself said “Something…”.
Once you opened the box, you saw “…olde” – a crumpled up 20€ bill wrapped in string.
Next up: A shiny new bill in a shiny “…new” envelope.
This was followed by a tiny gift book containing good wishes and sayings by famous people. I enclosed a letter saying that I knew most people didn’t know what to do with these gift books once they had read them, and so I expected my friend to give it back to me at some point. Therefore, she had merely “…borrowed” it.
The final element in the box was a small jewelry case wrapped in a paper strip reading “…blue”.
This contained the final 20€ bill wrapped in the bracelet.
The individual flower petals are not perfectly aligned, but I really like the “natural”, almost playful look this gives the bracelet.
After the wedding my friend dropped me a line saying how much she loved my gift idea. I love that she loved it!
Also I’m thinking, I should have made the bracelet the “…borrowed” part. Dang! (just kidding) (I think)
* I am not affiliated with Beading Daily in any way, other than me enjoying their free patterns! 😉
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