Recently I signed up for a chance to win a set of polymer clay beads from Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio. I love her beads. I have a set with the most adorable little pony and some additional beads and I haven't had the time to make up a bracelet with them. It will be for me, since I love horses. Just need to make the time. Anyway, I got chosen to receive one set of a large and small round bead. I was overjoyed. I love the colors in them, to me very earthy and rustic. And as usual, forgot to take a picture of them before I started. I knew I wanted something very rustic, but since there were only 2 and they were different sizes I had to figure out how to use them. I had started hearing/reading about Chinese knotting and this intrigued me. It seems to be very similar to macramé which I used to do in the 70's and have been starting to re-add to my repertoire. (See my macramé anklet here and a fused glass piece I did a couple of years ago and added a small macramé hanger to it and sold in my shop.)
As I perused the internet for ideas and information about Chinese knotting I found a knot I like, the Chinese coin knot, I think they called it, also known as the Celtic knot a and thought it would make a great bracelet with the larger bead as the focal and the smaller one as the clasp. I found some hemp in a neutral color that matched the main color in the beads and then some wonderful 6/0 seed beads in the coordinating colors in the bead to add as pops of color. I set to work tying off a knot with a small seed bead as a stopper for the small round bead for the clasp. Then I started tying Coin/Celtic knots and adding the seed beads in between each knot. I was hoping both pieces of the hemp would go through the seed beads instead of having to put a bead on each piece, but it didn't work. I figured out how long I needed the bracelet and added the larger focal bead. Then I finished tying off the rest of the knots and the seed beads. Finally, I tied another knot, left a loop for the small bead/clasp to slide through, tied another knot and then 2 small seed beads on the end. I love the way it turned out. Very earthy, rustic that would go with so many things. The only thing I'm not fond of is the way it turns. I think I should have reversed the strings I was using working from left to right and then right to left as I would in macramé to keep it straighter. However, the tutorial I found didn't say anything about doing that. Next time I'll try it to see if it helps. Anyway, tell me what you think of my Chinese/Celtic knotted bracelet. Hope Tree Wings studio thinks I did justice to her beads. Here's the bracelet and a closeup of the larger bead/focal. Thanks for letting me play. Be sure to check out what everyone else did with their beads on Tree Wings Studio.
For more of my Wire-wrapped, Beaded jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics, Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.
Here's the participants:
Rebekah Payne - http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Stephanie LaRosa - http://stringaholic.blogspot.com/
Kathy Alderfer - http://artfulaccents.blogspot.com/
Posts
