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Consumed by Beads

So spinning Wednesday and beading Friday were both filled with a single obsession of beading.  That plus the rerunning of the entire six seasons of Downton Abbey by the Seattle PBS station has caused the creation of two bracelets.  One will be shared today with a quick look at the other.  That second will be discussed soon in detail.

I found another Jill Wiseman design (I know I am probably obsessed with her designs as well) called Princess Peyote.  It can use a mix of Delica beads like this:

Photo from jillwisemandesigns.com

Or a single colour for the main portion of the bracelet like this sample:

Photo from jillwisemandesigns.com
The fringe on the second bracelet introduced me to the flower bead that is more clearly made out as the coppery colour on the top of the bracelet above.  I think those tiny little flowers are wonderful.  So I set out at Shipwreck Beads to find some and indeed I did.


This picture is taken at very close range so you can see I purchased a set of crystal flowers, one set with gold and pastel colours on black and the final set has gold and silver on black.

Additionally I have a lot of seed beads in this colour way:


There are gold, crystal, transparent gray and then solid shiny and flat charcoal gray beads.  You've seen that mix used to make the first wrap bracelet.  This is a very versatile set of colours for my wardrobe.  So even though the pattern for the Princess Peyote bracelet calls for Delica beads that are all perfect little cylinders, I thought I might be able to make the mix work.  Alas, I was wrong, peyote stitch in bead weaving works best if all the beads are exactly the same.  So I designed my own pattern using the flat square stitch from the Sleek bracelet and created an original (sort of) Princess Flagel Cuff.


You'll notice it doesn't look a lot like the Princess Peyote bracelet designed by Jill Wiseman.  The openness of the weaving allows the beads to move around, and since they aren't all the same size they need that ability to move.  You'll also note I did use the flowers, but I did it with more restraint than the Wiseman design.  I wanted the flowers to be easily seen.  I also used the toggle closure and managed to make a small peyote tube.  This was a great deal easier than I expected and surprise, there is the stem of a Q-tip in there keeping it from collapsing.  Here's some more closeup photos.




The closeups really show the poor workmanship in the weaving.  You can see threads all over the place.  My hubris about doing it right a second time around was thwarted by my poor eyesight and skill combined.  However, I like this bracelet very much and will keep it for myself.  Generally one is not looking at it three or less inches away.

I have started another and this time the hubris is justified.  I am getting it right.  Here's a sneak peak.


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