Pink delight

I had these beads that I felt were a bit pale on their own. So I added some wires, and now I am very happy with the result!

Learning a new technique

I have spent a lot of time this week learning to do kumihimo patterns. I hope the spelling is the same in English as it is in Norwegian.
It is lots of fun, but also a bit frustrating as even the smallest of mistakes can mess up a braid and at least at the moment I can not see the mistake until after I have finished the braid.
I have ordered a couple of bobbins I think they are called that help keep the threads in check. I have found that this is an absolute must! At least with the thinner thread and the wires. So here are a couple of examples of what I have made so far. A bit rough still, but fun!

This is a fairly thick thread. It is easy to work with, but the result is a bit massive. 

 I don't know if it is possible to see, but there is actually a metal wire braided in with the black thread. Fun, but the wire seemed to have a life of its own.

 This is the one I was most pleased with. This is all metal wires, purple and grey. The colours look wonderful with each other and the overall look was very nice.
I have decided to make this into a necklace and I have added a pendant in similar colors.

Their hearts are singing...

I know that this is a song, perhaps somebody with a bit more control than me know which one? I believe that it is a country song, but I could be mistaken.

However, I have always liked this phrase and while I can not make a necklace sing, I can make bells chime. At least a little.
So I made this

I took 4 hearts, one for each child and placed a tiny bell in the middle of each. Then I took a circle with beaten silver, and place a heart glass bead inside it. I added to keys to the end. In my mind, the hearts are the children and they are held together and given stability and support by the heart in the oval, which represents us as parents. Then the keys symbolises that this unit is holding firm, no matter what, 

I then added a pale grey thread to i, so it can be worn as a necklace.  

Bracelets for boys

I have three boys and one girl. It is always simple to make something for the girl as she sort of loves everything.
The boys are a bit jealous of this, as they also want me to spend time making something for them. Of course they do not know what they want, but something. They are 8, 10 and 12 years old, so it can be a  bit of a challenge.
However, now I tried to make some bracelets that were more geared towards boys than girls, however, they can be used by both as I discovered when my girl wanted them also.
The boys haven't worn them yet, but they did approve.

It brown leather, macrame and then a silver figure of a tiger is attached. I have attached the figure two places so it will not move. 

Here I have used a silver, thick thread. It was not very easy to use and I am not that happy with it, but it was ok. The silver figure is a dragon. This was also attached two places so it will not move around.

 Here I have used several rings, in bright silver and in bronze. I attached a dragon to one of the rings so it will not swing freely.

 On this I used silver ringers and I attached the tiger between two of the rings. The problem is that neither the tiger or the dragon has to attachment points. Thus I had to improvise, it worked after a bit of trial and error.

Kaos blir til orden, etterhvert

Da prøvde jeg meg på et nytt smykke. Det var litt mer komplisert enn jeg hadde tenkt, rett og slett fordi jeg manglet en god perletråd. Jeg hadde gått tom for den jeg vanligvis brukte, og med et bein som fremdeles ikke er helt bra så er det ikke lett å komme meg ut for å kjøpe mer. Derfor brukte jeg en type "wire" (kan ikke helt kalle det for ståltråd, men, men) og den var litt lite felksibel fant jeg ut etterhvert.

Så jeg begynte rolig

Jeg har en blanding av små perler og litt større perler for å skape litt liv i smykket. 

Jeg tar først og legger til basen, og da tar jeg to små perler og en stor til jeg får rett lengde. 

Så legger jeg til de små perlene langs sidene. Her slet jeg med å få det til å bli stramt og pent. Jeg måtte ta det opp noen ganger og glemte helt å ta bilder. Men tilslutt fikk jeg et resultat jeg var fornøyd med og la til øredobber og armbånd. 

Her er noen bilder av det ferdige settet. Jeg er fornøyd med resultatet, men jeg må skaffe meg en bedre tråd. Det var mer slitsomt enn det behøvde å være, tror jeg. Det neste jeg vil prøve meg på er en lang St.Petersburg halssmykke, men det må definitivt vente til jeg har kjøpt meg ny perletråd.