It's Picture Day!

Hey, look, an actual picture of jewelry on a jewelry blog. What a novel concept.

This is the lavender/green embroidered bracelet that I’ve been working on forever (it seems like forever anyway). I finally finished the embroidery part and thought I’d do a quick scan before it gets applied to the bracelet blank because it’s so much harder for me to get any kind of a picture once this project gets three dimensional and won’t fit in the scanner any more. I have a new camera now, though, so hopefully the pictures will come out better this time.

Anyway, this stage is done and I’ve got the purple ultrasuede backing already applied to the bracelet blank. Next step is to finish cutting out this piece, glue it to the top of the bracelet blank and then do the beaded edging and I’ll be DONE.

I’ve already got the next embroidery project underway, but it’ll be eons before it’s even close to being finished. Still, I learn something every time I do one of these projects. In this one, I improved on my color selection and did a better job measuring the pieces and staying within the measured boundaries. I like the scattering of pearls throughout the piece as accents, but I’m not so happy with my idea of alternating size 15 seed beads with size 11 seed beads in the body of the bracelet. It works okay to do it in the bezel around the center cab, but doesn’t work so well elsewhere. I also need to work on not crowding the beads together too much. A little more room here and there will help improve the look of things. Finally, I need to do a few more “outline rings” around the larger beads so I get more of a “pond ripple” effect there. Overall, though, I think this project is an improvement over my first bracelet project.

These guys do take such an awfully long time. Maybe it’s time for another earring project to switch things up. Hmmm….