Winter Mint RAW Bracelet

Have you ever noticed that beads have an amazing ability to trap memories? Just like a familiar aroma, seeing a favorite bead or beaded creation can transport us back to another time. When looking through my collection of finished projects, I’m often reminded of movies I watched or books I listened to while making them. Going back to somewhat forgotten materials in my bead stash can remind me of when I found them.

The Inspiration:

I was recently going through my tray of cubes, triangles and hex cuts, and came across the remnants of a few baggies of 3mm TOHO Hybrid cube beads. They were part of my very first online bead order, and when I saw them again, I was taken back to the very early days of Inspirational Beading, and my Etsy shop. It was fun to look back and remember how wide-eyed I still was about so many different types of beads. I had been drawn to the dual-tone cubes because they were unlike anything I had seen in my local bead store.

I thought it was about time I used up the last few of these blue-green beads. The color combination makes me think of mint - it’s a sort of mouthwash color, but prettier. And since winter isn’t as far away as we might hope, I wanted to do something cool and fresh looking.

The Beads:

The transparent cubes need a neutral base to really stand out against, so I paired them with opaque white seed beads to start. Right angle weave seemed like a great treatment for both, so for simple accents I also added some 10mm fire polish in a pretty light aqua, that plays nicely with the Hybrids. The entire palette reminds me of late winter days, when the sun comes out to reveal bits of green beneath the shallowest snowdrifts.

The Beadwork:

To make this wintery bracelet, I started out using the cubes and seed beads to make right angle weave squares. The white beads are from a sorry batch, and the irregular shape makes the little RAW windows look crooked. I was happy to have the fire polish, which helped to straighten things out a bit. These I added as accents within some of the windows, in a floral shape.

I like the overall look of the bracelet, though I’m not sure I’ll attempt another. Adding the fire polish to right angle weave squares requires so much needle work, it was exhausting just adding a small handful. I was able to use up almost all of the cube beads though. There are only about 5 left, which will look nice in some bead soup of the future.

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