I think I have made it pretty well known that I've been on a bracelet kick lately. I have also been experimenting with using silver, a territory I wasn't that comfortable with since my creative roots lie with brass products, but that didn't stop me from trying it out. My first attempt was with lapis lazuli beads and crystal dangles using silver findings and wire. After my last purple butterfly bracelet that I posted on a recent blog, I wanted to do a similar bracelet only with beads alone and no focal butterfly, just to make the design more generalized to appeal to more people who were looking for basic or classic jewelry and not necessarily hand painted butterflies. I loved the design so much that I did the EXACT same bracelet, only I used silver wire, jump rings, and bead caps. Here are photos of both bracelets to show the difference that the findings make in the design. Which do you prefer or are drawn to? I am almost always drawn to the brass as it feels less complicated, more laid back, more down to earth, if you will. But here lately, I feel the silver pulling me ever so closer in...will there be a change in my designing future? Perhaps...it would be easier to go there if the cost of silver went down! Until then, the artistic wire will have to do.
Here is the brass version:
And here is the silver version:
My last post was about the blog hop, and I made 2 pairs of earrings that also used some of the beads she sent. One pair included only beads she sent as well as chain, and the others just had one little glass bead left over from my bead soup. Here they are!