Twisted Links

So I was feeling the creative juices flowing (sort of like dribbling, but far better) when I had this brilliant idea of a beaded bracelet using a twist link chain as the base.  You see lots of ordinary link chains with beads, but I quite like the softness of twist link chain - it's really lovely to wear.

10 out 10 more experienced jewellery artists will be going "oh oh" at this point, and 10 out of 10 of them would be right!

I will now give you a rundown of what turned into a huge and monumental amount of time spent on a beaded bracelet.

It was around 9pm when I started on the selection of beads.  This is almost as good as seeing the finished piece - you get to drag everything out and look at it all for a while in a little trance.  If anyone interrupts you in the midst of this bit, you vaguely wave a hand to go away and mumble things like "creating", "thinking", "nearly got the perfect image in my mind". It works a treat when you want to be left alone - it also (at my house) nearly always guarantees a steady supply of hot coffee appearing without me asking for it!

I'd recently bought some flat oval crystals in a particularly nice shade of purple which, when the pin or thread runs through, gives the appearance of a leaf with a central vein.  As I was dying to use them for something, this seemed like a good time.

So I put away everything non-purple (or that wouldn't really go with purple), stared and muttered some more, drank the next coffee, then had a Eureka! moment (there are only so many coffees you can consume before you get a little high and shout Eureka! slightly louder than intended - just a word of caution).

Add lots of varying shapes and tones for textural interest, and we're off and racing.  Or... we're off and crawling, as it turned out.  This is an hour into the bracelet.

One hour and counting

Yes, that tiny little beaded bit in front of the pliers is after an hour!  At first I thought I was doing something, well, wrong.  I know, it's a bit hard to believe that would happen, so I discarded that idea.  At this stage, I just put it down to not knowing the tricks - it would obviously get quicker and easier now that I knew what I was doing.

Two hours of solid work (with no coffee! - Where is the coffee boy?)

Guess what - it didn't get quicker, it didn't get easier, and I didn't learn any tricks of any value except for one - don't use twist link chain to attach oodles of beads.  Those teeny tiny little spaces between the twists are even teenier and tinier when you're trying, with tired eyes, to insert what seems like a mere wisp of metal ring or pin through them.  

Insert multiple swear words at this stage, because whatever you say I can assure you won't be as awful as what came out of my mouth after 3 hours of really really hard work.

After three hours, new swear words aimed at twist link chain have been invented by moi

To cut what turned into a saga much shorter, it was 2am before the bracelet was finally finished!  Yes, I was silly enough to stay up until it was done, mostly because I couldn't face the thought of getting up the next day and starting on it again.  I was quite worried that if I collapsed into bed before completion then it would sit there, unfinished, forever - particularly as I'm fairly sure that it would have been just as time consuming undoing all the hard work as it had been to do it in the first place.

Dancing naked around the bonfire crying Hallelujah! It's finished!

Once upon a time I had a website review done from a bunch of random people, whereby one of these "learned" people compared the MinzBeadz website with a blog from an unknown artist (fairly sure said artist must have been a friend of his).  In the comparison he felt that Unknown Artist 'showed their DNA' in their blog and "studio" photos, and I could do well to follow that example.  

For the record, Unknown Artist's photos were actually blurry (might have been a bit too much of that messy DNA on the pieces, who knows), and the "studio" looked pretty much like my workbench with a towel on it.  However, I digress... this learned reviewer would be pleased to know that this particular bracelet is now reeking with all the DNA it can handle with my blood, sweat and tears.  And I tried doing a blurry photo or two in an attempt to reach the standard set by Unknown Artist, but unfortunately couldn't manage it.  Sorry everyone, you'll have to be patient and try not to cringe as you view my clear photos with no towel under them. Oh, I just twigged - the towel must have been to wipe up the excess DNA - duh!

So whenever you're tempted to wonder why hand made jewellery can be expensive - think of my bracelet and you'll appreciate that some pieces are way under priced for the amount of work that may have gone into it, - you're actually getting a bargain.