Flower Beads

I was cleaning my room recently (I know, big shock!) and came across a bunch of old jewelry, including these anklets.

Now I've had these since I went to Mexico when I was in grade school and I always thought they were really cool so I thought, hey, maybe I should try to learn to make them.

Above is my first attempt! Pretty good I think, although a lot larger scale than the originals.

I figure it's initially easier to work with larger beads in order to fully understand the pattern. That way, when you have to work with seed beads you can actually know what's going on without straining your eyes too much!

I think that the larger flowers will probably become a key chain because I'm personally not that into chunky jewelry. I am working on a bracelet with this style right now and so I'll post that when I finish! And since this bracelet is pretty cool I'll try to write a pattern of sorts to share with y'all on the interwebs.

Update (8/20/12): Here's my completed seed-bead sized bracelet!

Full bracelet

Close-up of the pattern

Close-up of the clasp

A special thanks to my friend for whom this was made: she gave me all the materials! The beads were strung on beading wire and the clasp is a clip clasp (I believe that's correct). It took about 3 hours, but it takes less and less time as you get closer to the end. I would not recommend using beading wire though because it was very difficult to start the bracelet because the wire was too strong. I haven't had time to make a pattern yet, but I will put it up as soon as I have!

Button Bracelets

Long time no see! I promise during my long disappearance I continued to work on some small projects; get ready for several close-succession posts!

Over the summer I taught my three roommates to make friendship & hemp bracelets. One of them saw a bracelet on Pinterest that used a button as a center piece and challenged me to learn how to make it. Although I changed the style slightly, I really like the result. 

These are the two bracelets that I made for myself. Each bracelet uses three hemp strings through each hole. It is a little difficult to get all three through without having some fraying, but in the end the band looks nicer because piece you braid with has the same number of strings.

The most difficult part of the bracelet is definitely the knot at the end with the clasp button. For mine I ended up threading two of the strings in and out of the clasp button. Then, I tied the knot right underneath the button using all of the strings. It's important to tie the knot as close to the button as possible to keep the threads in the button from wearing out as fast.

Although I braided my bands there are a lot more options. My roommate knotted the band of one of her bracelets like you would a friendship bracelet, so there's lots of room for experimenting! If anyone makes a button bracelet and creates a band a different way I'd love to see it!