Post: Bead Therapy and Some New Bracelets

Sunday often turns into cleaning day in our house, with me trying to get the house clean and organised, cooking down for the next two days including packed lunches, laundry and uniforms to be uniforms ironed. I try to rope everyone in and alhamdulillah the kids are very helpful (even if Gorgeous’ idea of help can be counter-productive, picking something up and then putting it away by dropping it in a different part of the house isn’t very helpful)

I spent hours yesterday trying to get everything done and at about mid-day, I decided I could do no more. I gave the kids dire warnings about undoing all of my cleaning and then decided to treat myself to some quiet time and bead therapy. I spent a couple of hours a few weeks ago, sorting through my beads and getting rid of ones I knew I would not use. I could have done it quicker, but the sight of beads is usually enough to get Darling over to insist on “helping” and Baby trying to climb into the box and throw everything out or try and eat beads.

This time Darling was busy trying to boss her brothers (who she calls “my boys”) into changing the programme they were watching over for cartoons and baby was napping. I spent a lovely hour or two listening to TED talks and playing with beads, enjoying the texture and colour and testing how beads look together. I have been planning to make a few pieces to upgrade my accessories to go with my scarves.

This green and blue are lovely, the picture doesn't quite pick up the colour.  The white beads I have had for ages, I loved the smooth feel of them but couldn't decide on how to use them until now.

I struggled to find what I could pair these amber beads again, there were only a few and they are smooth and heavy, so I thought I would make them the centrepiece of these bracelets with white to set them off.  I haven't decided if I will keep these or re-make them into something else.

I adore anything green and I like to take inspiration for colour from nature, I don’t think you can go wrong with pairing colours that exist naturally: lavender with its grey-green leaves, the deep green of the leaves with a red rose, fields of corn against a blue sky.

So I paired brown beads with the green and used up some odds and ends that I had.  I love the oriental style of some of the beads.

I have been meaning to make a set of brown beads.  I used to have some which I wore to death for years until they started to break.  I plan to make a few more like the blue and brown below to wear as a stack and some with just mixed medium brown beads which I can wear as a separate set or with these.