Variation of a Fire Mountain Gems pattern #63DK

HoneyComb Bracelet, with changes made by me. I also have a sort of space age-y or retro-y Swarovski pearl and crystal version, and also a graduated shades of color version of this that I made that I spent some time working and reworking the pattern and order of colors placed, blogged previously HERE, the second post down.

I made this bracelet awhile back for my wonderful SIL, the one who got me into this addiction, er, I mean creative pursuit. It's all her fault, I tell you . . . .

We did a design challenge for each other; it was to be make a bracelet for the other, with a color the other one specified. I requested turquoise for mine, and she requested blue.

Her creation for me (to which the photos do not do justice at ALL) just happened to win First Prize in the Utah State Fair last year! I am madly in love with it, too . . . she's always saying I'm so good at this, but I tell you, she is a jewelry artist herself. The way she combined visual textures; visual contrast and similarity amongst the sizes, colors, and shapes of components, plus the theme she set for the bracelet which was guaranteed to steal my heart; dolphins!

The pattern is jogged out to the side a bit, and a wire-wrapped link holding a butterfly charm is placed in-line with the main pattern/line of the bracelet, which visually balances the "jog". The "jog" provides extra interest as well, and visually balances the butterfly charm. The sparkle this has is beautiful, and it looks amazing worn, if I can so so myself without seeming too self-important.

I have yet to make one for myself, but that will change! I'm imagining caribbean blue opal Swarovski crystals, and some other greens/blue-greens, maybe some blue; I'm not sure yet. A dolphin will be dancing from the charm link, you can be sure!

If you clicked through to see the color-graduated version, click a close-up of the pic; that will show the colors better, although the purple velvet and the dark/medium dark purples, some of the light ones as well, don't show as graduated as they are in person; also, at the time, I had few supplies and had few colors to work with!

Another note; this looks most excellent created on Beadalon's coated silver-plated beading wire, which is said to not tarnish (it's coated, for durability too). I used the size readily available at Michael's. This size worked PERFECTLY for this bracelet, as it was thick enough to not really slip back out of pattern once I had pulled the parts of the weave together as I did them; a little tightening occasionally was helpful, but it held its place much better than a thinner wire would have. The silver color of this is much more attractive than the smoke grey of the regular steel beading wire peeking through the translucent crystals, and occasionaly through bits of the woven pattern; no matter how tightly you pull the weave, this pattern is one that shows the base wire a little here and there, and you also don't want to break the crystals. Firm but not aggressive tugging will do the trick!

Oy, I've rambled! I like this bracelet, though!