You must be wondering what this is! I am still trying to figure out the yellow green bracelet Sharon loaned me as shown in yesterday's blog. At the top is the bracelet I am trying to make out of the beads that I designed because I did not like having to cover the round beads. Okay.
But still the mystery of the yellow green bracelet remained. When I showed it to Werner he immediately said, "I see that on a brown arm." Then it hit me. This style is very African! I have seen pictures of African beading that had this feel and this color. Also the seed beads are the opaque kind they use. So with the desire to figure out how an African woman made this bracelet, I returned to the puzzle with a lot more enthusiasm.
First of all I had to figure out how the balls were stitched together. This is not done with any stitch that I know. By holding the elastic apart I was able to follow the thread paths and then to draw them and then to duplicate the process with plain wooden beads. However, this does not work with smooth beads. The roughness of the bead-covered beads actually holds the beads together in place. So there was nothing for me to do but to cover the 48 beads with seed beads. This is, to me, another clue that says this bracelet is African - it is very labor-intensive. I worked all afternoon and evening and only got 16 of the beads covered.
Got to run! Need to deliver my beads to Vicki so she can take them to the Art in the Redwoods vendor booth she and Marianne are having this weekend at the Gualala Arts Center. In addition to all of this, Marianne started a blog this week. Check it out at: simplyseablimejewelry. blogspot.com. She is running a raffle for people who visit her blog and leave comments.