Braided beads

This weeks crafty excursion is just a small one, as I have a big assignment due next weekend and I’m trying very hard (and failing very badly) not to get distracted…

I saw a few versions of this necklace pop up on various blogs last year, and always thought it was a nice way to add a pop of colour to an outfit without going full on beaded-statement-necklace. It was easy to put together, I think the hardest part was choosing what coloured beads I wanted! We’re lucky to have a great bead store in Wellington, with a massive selection of seed beads. I went for 8mm beads, as I wanted a slightly chunkier braid but didn’t want to have to thread more than six strands of beads! I really am lazy.

To make it easier to string the beads, I safety-pin my knot to the knee of my jeans. This stops it flopping around, and makes it less likely that I’ll drop it and spill all of the beads! I knotted my threads to a jump ring, and the covered the knot with a crimp cover to make it look a bit tidier. I had a bit of trouble tidying the other end of the braid up, I just couldn’t get it to stay neat and tight, and you can see some of the black thread showing at one end. But I decided I could live with it, and I don’t think its too obvious now that its finished.

The only thing I’m unsure about is the
length. Above is the length I’ve made it, but I wonder if I should make it shorter, like in the below picture…

What do you think?
I also got my hair cut last week, I quite like it. I’m working my way shorter every time, I’m curious about a pixie cut, but not brave enough to lop it all off in one go!

The Fickle necklace

I’ve been wanting a simple necklace that will go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe for a while now. I couldn’t quite make up my mind about what I wanted though, I didn’t want a pendant, but i didn’t really want a string of beads either…so I popped into the bead store yesterday, to see if anything caught my fancy. And it did, a bit too much! I couldn’t make up my mind. I wandered around, picking jars of beads up, putting them down, picking them up again, wandering around a bit more, until I had narrowed my selection down to three. The only problem was, I didn’t want three necklaces. Then inspiration struck, I would make three different, interchangeable sections which could be swapped into the same length of chain (it seems so obvious in hindsight)! So I got some pins with a loop in one end, and threaded the beads onto them.

Then I wrapped the open end of the pin around my round nosed pliers to form a loop the same as the other end. I also cut my length of chain in half, and added a clasp in one end. Whenever I want to swap a new set of beads into my necklace, i just need to open both of the loops a little bit with my pliers, and hook the free ends of the chain into the open loops, then close them again. Easy! I can also make new segments whenever I find new beads or need a necklace to go with a new outfit. I’m quite pleased with it, really.

I particularly like the turquoise beads, though I think the black faceted beads will be the basic necklace that I was wanting. Simple, but still a bit interesting! I'm calling it the Fickle necklace, because I can change it up as often as I want (and because I was waffling so much in the bead shop). If only my current sewing project was coming together as smoothly as this…