Something a little different

When I thought I was out, they pull me back in ;-)

I've been slowly moving away from jewelry this past year.  It's not that I don't enjoy making it, I just feel that the market is so saturated it's not a viable option any more.  And I'm having so much fun creating non-wearable items.  It's very freeing.  I'm loving it.

But I still get plenty of requests for jewelry.  And that's okay.  I enjoy making jewelry for people and I'm flattered that with all the jewelry artists out there, they chose me.  So as I go down the path of non-jewelry beaded art, I won't wonder too far from jewelry.

I was asked by a friend to make one of those leather wrap bracelets.  You know the ones, they are super popular right now, they have beads and leather cord and usually a pretty buttons clasp.  It's not really the type of jewelry I make, but I thought I'd give it a try for her.

So I raided my bead stash to make a practice one.  Hey, I wanted to make sure I could make one before I committed to a friend.  This is what I came up with.

Not perfect, but not bad.  I like it and I wear it quite often.  I see why people like making these and I see why people like wearing them.

So once I was sure I could make one, I set off to find the perfect beads.  She wanted something green with brown leather.  I can do that.

This is what I came up with.  As I said yesterday, I stopped by a local bead store that is having a farewell sale.  I picked up these beautiful Russian Amazonite for a great price.  I'm in love with them.  I also picked up some silver beads, seed beads, and some leather cord.  I then swung by JoAnn's and picked up cute metal buttons for the clasp.

I started working on this last night, and of course I didn't take any progress pictures.  You'll have to take my word, it's looks pretty so far.  I should be able to finish it up tonight and then I promise I'll take pictures of it before it goes off to it's new owner.

But don't worry jewelry artists that make these, I don't plan on making anymore of these.  It's not that I didn't enjoy making them, it's just not what I want to do at this point in my life.  It was a fun project to get my mind off of everything at work and a change of pace is always good.

Do you ever step outside your normal techniques/designs for friends or family?

Take care and eat as many king cakes and drink as many hurricanes as you can today.  Hey, it's Fat Tuesday, I think that's what you're supposed to do ;-)