Michaels Beading Challenge Blog Hop

Heather Powers of Humblebeads and Lorelei Eurto have joined forces to host another Michael’s Beading Challenge blog hop, inspired by this beautiful photo and colour palette by Heather.

Based on the photo and colour palette Heather picked these beads from Micheal's.

I was a little late in deciding to join so had to make some substitutions. (I'm not sure that we get all the same beads in the Michael's stores in Canada.) Some of the beads in the photo below are from my stash and some I found at Michael's. Though not exactly the same, they are close in shape and colour.

I thought copper was the perfect foil to highlight the gorgeous colours. I added polymer clay log beads in yellow and brown from Tree Wing Studios, and some of my own copper clay charms. I wanted to evoke the feeling of the country setting and thought that of all the handmade beads I had these fit the best.

I broke the rules a bit, then got back on track. First I wanted to use the palette to make a Christmas gift for a close friend of mine. I put together 4 sets of beads and charms and made napkin rings. Well actually I made 2 of them and will owe her 2 more since we are to see each other today.

I used a heavy copper wire for the base circle, approximately 9 gauge, and an 18 gauge wire to do the bead wrapping then added the charms with jump rings. The charms kind of disappear in the photos but they grab attention by moving freely. My daughter thought they were bracelets when she first saw them (yes they probably are a little large for napkin rings) and absolutely loved the colour combination. Heather thanks for the great palette!

After these two were finished I followed the rules again and made a necklace, using a larger charm from my copper clay stash and a large flattened ring I made from the same copper that I had used for the napkin base.

Everything was strung, and knotted, onto thin natural coloured leather cording.

I’m happy with how everything turned out, just need to hang the necklace for awhile so that the leather cords straighten out a bit. I decided to wear it today, you know, just to help the cording stretch out. 

Now, head over to Humblebeads to check out what everyone else made