September Pinterest Inspired Craftiness

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that cross stitch is not the only crafty pastime that I enjoy.  Lately, doing beadwork has become something I've been doing a lot more of.  I think it's because of all of the new types (for me) of beads on the market.  Superduos, Tilas, drop beads, and others have all caught my eye, making me wonder:  What can I make with this?  I've found that I particularly like to work with Superduos.  I found this Youtube video on Pinterest and knew that I had to make the bracelet.

I chose all bronze tones for the three types of beads used in this project.  Beads required were Superduos, 15/0 seed beads and just a few 8/0 seed beads.

Something I learned: when choosing colors for a bracelet (or for a necklace for that matter), figure out what kind of fastener looks best with it BEFORE starting your project.  I found that bronze closures are not easy to find.  Maybe there are multitudes of them, and I just was lax in my research.  Could happen.

I did find this magnetic fastener at my local bead store and I like it.  But it was the only one they had that would be suitable for this bracelet.  And this is a very well-stocked bead store!  So what do you think?  The video shows that you can make this really long to go around your wrist a couple of times, but I chose the single version.  The only teeny tiny change that I made was to add an extra 8/0 near the fastener.

This was a fun project to do and I would say that it's a good beginner to intermediate bracelet to make.  The instructions are excellent and it came together very quickly.  If you really wanted to, you could complete this in an afternoon.  Oh, and you can make this bracelet in wider widths by using more beads across.  That's explained in the video.

My visit to the bead store netted me two more tubes of Superduos in really cool colors, plus some beading necessities.  Don't be surprised if you see more of these bracelets on my blog!

One more thing.  My sister, Sheila, asked me if I wanted to take a painting class with her.  It was offered locally in conjunction with Colors of Fall Art Exhibition and Sale sponsored by the Sawnee Association of the Arts.  It was conveniently scheduled on my day off so I happily accepted.  So we went today not knowing what to expect.  Sheila is definitely the better artist/drawer/painter of the two of us, but I had a lot of fun.  Thanks to the instructor (who is obviously very talented and very patient), I successfully painted a pear and I also learned a lot.  OK OK, I got a little help, but I think everyone else in the class did too.  Don't laugh.

I had the distinction of being the messiest and most disorganized class member.  Go me!  I left the class with the most paint on my hands.  We will be taking another class in a couple of weeks called Color Theory.  I don't know exactly what that is, but I like colors so I'll probably like it.

So that's my craftiness for the week.  I hope you enjoyed seeing the fruits of my labors.  Ha ha, "fruits".  Get it?  I am such a jokester.  Thanks for visiting and come back soon.