Confessions of a Crystal Hoarder Blog

People have their favorite types of jewelry, and it changes over the years. When I was in middle and high school I had one necklace and one ring, and pairs upon pairs of earrings. My favorites were yellow wooden parrots hanging from a hoop that I got at Busch Gardens, and they happened to match my watch. Or at least one of them! I was a Swatch lover. At one point I had 5 or 6 of them. I started off small, but they got bigger and bolder over time, until I switched to metal watches. I was a watch wearer all through college too. But that started to change about 2000. 

Two things prompted this. I found myself leaving my watches at work after taking them off for my mouse intensive job. Let me pause and explain that. I am left handed, and I wore my watches on the right. But I also mouse with my right hand. And it got uncomfortable by day’s end. And I started carrying a pocket watch of sorts…my cell phone.

All this to explain that bracelets are rarely my first thought. So this month I’m on a wrist watch.

When I opened the May box, I wanted to experiment with the long brass setting strips. At first I’d thought of punching them and using them as spacers, then I decided to use them for their true purpose as settings. I used an oval mandrel and lots of masking tape to shape the findings. I did not hammer them, only hand pressed them so that they’d spring back a little once untaped. I used drucks instead of chatons or no-hole beads, so I could then form hinges though the aligning holes to form a bangle.

I was going to save the ridged brass beads for an Egyptian Revival style collar, but instead chose to break out the kumihimo cord and make a simple square stitch bracelet. That’s not to say I won’t destroy, or umm, “recycle” it later…

I was intrigued by the patina on these beads, so I let them stay in their grungy state. I think it could be really interesting to see how they’d turn out with a little gilder’s paste, then a good buffing.

This brass bracelet was fun to make. My dog disagrees; he hates hammering. I punched the blanks before they got too work hardened to manage then tapped away with my hammer. Since I’m not a big fan of pounding my fingers I used a tiny bit of poster tack to keep the blank on my block. What may look like soldered rings are bezel cups. I got a mixed bag of stampings and miscellaneous cups in one of my booth bags. Speaking of booth bags, if you’re in Milwaukee for B&B stop by the booth #228 & 230, and this ol’ bag may be there!

I have a stockpile of high-dome cabs, they were one of my obsessions last fall. I get really frustrated that beaded bezels cover up so much of the cabochon so I was looking for ways to counteract that. The turquoise colored round (#20159) was a perfect fit. You can see the bezel cups, and height of the stone better from this angle.

The woman who owned my house before me loved daylilies. They still grow in what almost pass for flower beds. They’re in bloom around my mailbox now, so when I saw the little yellow flowers in the box, the lilies were fresh in my mind. The only plants I’ve planted that have been as hardy as Miss Nancy’s daylilies are my two Japanese Wisterias. And oh how they’ve succeeded! They’re what you see in the background of most of the photos taken on my deck.The bracelet version consists of loop fringe in various size seed beads on a peyote base of 6/0s. I used some Czech spade shaped drops of extra texture.

It’s kind of funny that this was this bracelet that I worked on while getting my allergy shots. One set of shots for the base, and another for the fringe. Afterall, I can’t just sit there for the required time doing nothing…and staring at my empty w