A Bracelet a Week: Winter Frost

No matter how much we love skiing and making snow angels, there usually comes a time when winter becomes old hat. But no matter how much we long for spring, it’s still hard to ignore or forget the things we do love about the colder months, especially all the beautiful sights. There’s nothing quite like the look of evergreen boughs covered in frost on a sunny winter morning.

I wanted to capture that look in this week’s bracelet, so I started with white pearl Ceylon finish seed beads in 11/o and 6/o sizes. I think that this shimmery finish makes for really gorgeous snow-inspired designs. Better than stark opaque white, they seem to capture that sparkle of tiny frost crystals.

To add a bit of ice, I used crystal luster druks. The shiny finish on the transparent glass looks exactly like water that has just frozen. It has that perfect glossiness to it that makes them perfect for a winter inspired piece.

This design really brought out one of the issues that often kept me from making a lot of bracelets in the past. Because they need to fit just so, it’s often difficult to decide on the proper dimensions to use. Some designs, like this one, will change in length as you work, so there’s no sure fire way to tell how long a bracelet will be until it is finished.

I over estimated the amount of shrink the leaf fringe would cause, so this one ended up being in the plus size range. But now I know for next time! Every beading mistake is another valuable learning experience.

I would like to thank Artbeads.com for providing the seed beads and druks used in this piece. Inspirational Beading has not received paid compensation for including Artbeads.com products or reviews in this blog post. I have shared my honest opinions about the products used in this design.

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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