My sister really likes what I have been weaving and has been begging me to send her my creations. She has a small wrist, though, and so I decided that instead of re-weaving one of my past designs, I would make a custom bracelet just for her. After watching Ray Davies (The Kinks) play a beautiful guitar on Austin City Limits, I found my inspiration. I sketched out a design which included all colors and the general design of Davies’ guitar – white, black, pearly midnight blue, deep brown – but it turned out to be way too chaotic. So I chose a simple fret board pattern which is a combination of different patterns I had seen on interesting instruments like banjoleles (a miniature, ukulele-sized banjo). Ultimately, I think the concept was greater than the execution, although I’ve received quite a few compliments so far.
I thought it was high time that I expand my skills beyond the 10-column matrix and so I sketched a design which incorporated 20 bead columns. My sister said her ideal bracelet was no more than 6 1/2 inches in length so I accounted for the beaded loom work to be about 5 1/2 inches long. I accounted for 81 rows of beads which turned out to be a little less than 5 1/2 inches. I decided instead of using thread for the warps I would use wire to imitate the appearance of guitar strings (What an instrument it would be, with 21 strings!). I did, however, stick with thread for the weft.
I edged the loom work with plain white and black stripes and then created a pattern of silver (for the frets), pearly white, pearly midnight blue (for the inlays) and dark brown beads (for the wood). I think if I were to redo this bracelet I might drop the white and black stripes and add an extra row of silver beads to either end. I used both 11/0 Delicas and Toho Treasures for this project. My original design had plain dark brown beads without the inlays but I thought it might look too plain. I now think it could go either way.
This particular project raised a few challenges:
- Some of the colors are so similar it’s hard to tell them apart (midnight blue and black, pearly white and white) so keeping them separate in your tray is vital.
- It’s more difficult with wire to make sure the weft is woven over each row. I found I had more mistakes on this one than a thread-only bracelet.
I happened to be driving from my home in California across the desert into Arizona while making this bracelet so I fortiuously was able to stop in Quartzite, Arizona (a crazy rock-hound and jeweler’s paradise) and visit their big bead store (literally one of a handful of businesses open in town after March) where I found, at 50% off, just the findings I was looking for. I snagged a 1-inch five-strand end piece which was just about the right size (maybe a 1/4-inch too small) for my bracelet.
After the bracelet was woven and I removed it from the loom, I used the technique of threading the end warps (4 to 5 at a time) through crimp beads, through the end-piece loop and back through the crimp beads and then applying the crimp tool to them. NOTE: Follow the above technique for each bead one at a time or else it will be really hard to crimp the beads if you thread all the warps through the end piece and then try to crimp them. I originally attached a magnetic clasp to the end piece but the bracelet was too heavy to hold it so I switched it out with a barrel clasp. (For functionality, I probably should’ve used a lobster claw, but I like the clean look of the barrel clasp better.)
With the loom-work plus the findings, my bracelet is a little over 7 inches long. Which fits me perfectly but may be a bit big for my sister. This might not be a big deal since the wire warps give the bracelet a nice structure. She can always send it back to me and I’ll wear it, ha ha.
P.S. This bracelet REALLY sparkles in the sunlight!
