Leaf Bracelet

Private collection

This was the very first charted piece I designed. I had just done a kit from Second Story Online, a Goddess Bracelet ( I unfortunately do not have a picture of that piece) for a friends Christmas present, and wanted to try something on my own. I had just bought these wonderful retro looking colors from Jane's Fiber and Beads, and really wanted something for myself using them. It took some trial and error, to figure out how to

work starting with charting a design. I had been working intuitively up to this point. It is a complete logic shift to start by drawing a chart and mapping out a word chart. I found with a repeating pattern, sometimes it works well to make one piece of it, (see above) get a photo or scan of it, and print it, so you can see how it will look repeated, and what the spacing needs to be to fit the wrist you are working around. As a side note, when doing that, I decided I liked the look of one leaf, and that was the start of the Leaf Change-a-Bead Necklace.

I did some experimenting on this piece as well. I wanted an edging for it, but wanted something that looked organic. I came up with this, sort of blanket stitch, around the edge. I was really pleased, and thought it looked like a tree branch, sort of...

I also learned an important lesson, with this bracelet about sharp edges on beads, that I will talk about in an upcoming entry.