Flower Power Bracelet - Day 3

Imagine my surprise when I looked down at the bracelet on my arm when I was out shopping today. The center flower looked like a water lily. The five inner petals absolutely refused to stay fanned out and stood right up, surrounding the montee in the center. So, is this a new variation and is it something I can replicate, or is it just a lucky accident? Doesn't matter, because I like it.

I decided that I wanted to show a bit more about the fringe to make clearer the way I work. I created about an inch and a half of the 3-bead peyote with a doubled thread. I realized that I forgot to explain how I get to a single thread. No big deal. I simply make a couple of overhand knots, then clip one of the threads.

Here are some of the fringe elements in my bracelet. This is how it looks before I really get into the whole process. I have a tendency to overdo, although I like to think of my fringe as exuberant rather than overdone.




As a comparison, the photo on the right shows the very first segment I did on the bracelet itself.


I added the two fringe that straddle the middle bead to the sample. Hope this helps. There will be a lot more fringe ideas in the days to come.



Finally, here's a closeup of the picot that is worked along both edges.


Several of my students and friends have asked me about buying beads for the embellishment--the flowers, the leaves, the gemstone chips, the pearls, etc. (I assume these people are probably new to beading because all I have to do is start rummaging through my stash which has been growing for better than 15 years.) Here's my advice to them: start checking out these various types of beads when you're in your local bead store, looking for any strings that have a mixture of colors, or iris or aurora borealis finish which will often enhance very different color schemes. Then there are tubes that are color mixtures of drops, triangles, and cubes. When Suza Beads was still in business, they used to have a huge bowl of beads from which we could buy a small plastic bag full for a very reasonable price. Of course, we weren't allowed to pick out just the beads we wanted, but Nancy never blindfolded us so we always got a great selection. I haven't looked on E-Bay or Etsy, but I'd bet you could find some nice mixtures there for a very reasonable price. And don't forget to check beads leftover from other projects. It's expensive to buy five or six strands just to get the six or seven of each bead that you want to use. There's also no rule about using a large variety of beads either; it's just what I like.