Egyptian Beaded Bracelets

Posted on by capentalc

While my verdant garden has been winding down this fall, I wanted to share some of my favorite Egyptian looking bracelets and a few other bracelets.

I’ve chosen these designs because many of them are thicker bracelets. I have very small wrists and I like to wear my bracelets like Wonder Woman’s bullet deflecting cuffs.

I’ve made these bracelets a few years ago and some are a bit rusty especially near the clasps.  Most of the clasps I chose are magnetic clasps because I don’t like to trouble with the other hard-to-put-on-by-yourself clasps.  With magnetic clasps, it snaps into place in a second without even looking!  It is great for people like me who are usually late and scrambling around in the morning.

The biggest downside to magnetic clasps is that if it accidentally touches something metal it will attach itself to that and you lose it.  I’ve dropped several bracelets like that before but I always catch it before it says bye-bye forever.

Damaraland Bracelet pattern by Riana Olckers

Kakana Bracelet pattern by Jaycee

Herringbone Bugle & Crystal Band pattern by Debbie Roberti

Fina Bracelet pattern by Ellad2

Sleek Bracelet by Jill Wiseman

Pewter Lace Bracelet pattern by Smadar Grossman

Hubble Stitch pattern by Melanie de Miguel

Beading Pattern by Debbie Roberti

Tila SuperDuo Bracelet pattern by Debbie Roberti

The following bracelets have no name that I can find at the moment. They were probably from one of the beading magazines or something I combined with an online tutorial.

Now I must get outside to prepare my garden for this day of 90 plus degrees heat in Southern California. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend!

Beaded Xara Necklace

Posted on by capentalc

With the weather being so cold in the morning, I haven’t been outside to work in my garden. I thought now would be a good time to talk about my indoor garden of beads.  

Long before I started gardening, I was interested in beading, crocheting, and knitting. Now, with the weather being colder outside, I have been focusing more on these indoor hobbies.  

Let me start first with beading since I have been doing them the longest.  I discovered beading six years ago during a vacation to Portland, Oregon with my family.  I bought a bracelet that someone knitted using fine silver wires and Swarovski beads.  I always thought beading was about stringing beads onto a rope or chain and call it a bracelet or necklace but now, I realize there is so much more to beading. The bracelet below was the inspiration for all of my beading work thereafter.  The bracelet also spurred an interest in knitting and crocheting because I wanted to make a similar bracelet myself.  Alas, I have not been able to duplicate such a bracelet.  I am still trying to perfect my knitting.

I tried making some of my own bracelets shortly after unsuccessful attempts to make that inspirational bracelet. Here are some my very early bracelets. Shown below are three different bracelets with color combinations to go with my outfits at the time.

Decent right? But not the greatest!

Below are some earlier ones that were much more improved. These are just a small sample of what I’ve made. I will show other ones on other posts.

Beaded bracelet and ring I made

For now, let’s concentrate on my latest addition: the Xara necklace. This necklace can be achieved by following Debbie Roberti’s Xara pattern.  It was fairly easy to do and it took me about 3 hours to complete.  The hardest and most time-consuming part of beading is choosing the right beads and color combinations to make with the pattern.  I have a stash of beads from other projects so I tried to work with what I have first.  The large center beads in this necklace is the Paisley Duo and it has two holes, on the top and bottom of the beads.  In making these jewelry pieces, I always choose color combinations that work with my wardrobe.  A lot of times though, I find that I love greens and purples with gold or bronze similar to those found in jewelry from India. 

This necklace I made in silver tone but with a little bronze to make some of my dark-colored outfits stand out more.  I love the look of silver and gold together too. 

There you have it! I hope everyone enjoyed my bit of beading today even if you are not interested in girly beading stuff.