Inspired by a Friend

"Where does your inspiration come from?"

People ask me that all the time, and my answer is "Everywhere - people, nature, songs, artwork.  There's no rhyme or reason, inspiration just hits you when you're open to receiving it."

I recently saw this blog post on The Hive from my good friend Dawn in Alaska.  She had created an incredible chainmaille bracelet that "captured" Swarovski Crystal rondelles in a "net" of jumprings.  I happen to own one of these wonderful bracelets from when Dawn and I did a jewelry swap earlier this year.  I just love it - the way it's netted makes you look twice.

So after seeing this post I thought, how cool would it be to have a "netting" of sorts filled with pearls or gemstones or crystals... but the netting was made of beads.  Heck, I know how to make a netted rope, why not fill it up with pearl goodness?  After all, I'm a glass half-full sort of gal!

I chose a mix of Delicas that had some greens, pinks and peaches and mixed it with some vintage peach little round crystals... I scooped up a whole batch of beads in an estate sale when I first started experimenting.  I love the sparkle of them, mixed with the delicas the net turned out really well... fill it up with positivity and somebody will really love wearing this comfortable bracelet.

But I still wanted to be able to see more of the "filling" - after all the best part of an eclair is that ooey gooey last bite that has the remainder of the custard filling.  Mmmmmm  So I continued experimenting.  I tried lots of things, un-ravelled and finally it struck me, build the filling into the netting!  So I did... and so it worked.  I love it when a plan comes together (even if you weren't sure what the plan was to begin with.)

Wouldn't this be beautiful with white pearls & silver seed beads as wedding jewelry?

This bracelet is more stiff than the peach one, and I threaded copper wire through it to keep the perfect shape.  It wears like a bangle, but this would also be awesome strung on Softflex beading wire for a more flexible necklace.  So I owe Dawn a big thank you for inspiring me to learn something new and expand that already exploding brain of mine!  You're a gem!

Hope you find yourself in a state of awww at something wonderful today!  Appreciate and love all around us as we're blessed to be right where we are~
{Hugs!}
Dawn