Monday, July 7, 2008

My Collaboration with SandFibers, part 1

After I finished my Byzantine Bracelet yesterday, I sat down to work on my collaboration with SandFibers.

Carol Dean Sharpe, the brains behind SandFibers, had dreamed this up after seeing a previous post here, and we were off and running.

Here, Bailey delivers the package of beads from CD.




Here are CD's beautiful peyote beads.

Enough for 2 bracelets!

I decided to work with those gorgeous gold-plated beads first.






Here are my materials, all spread out and reading for wrapping.

I have cut my wires, and played with the beads to figure out how I want to arrange them in the bracelet.

And I have my 2 pin vises, ready to twist some of the wires.




Now I have twisted 2 of the wires, and I am ready for the hard part - trying to get all the wires to fit together.






Here, I have bent the longer wires, so as to form an eye and a hook, and loaded the beads on the center wire.

Then I start trying to get the wires to fit together. The wires want to tangle and cross over each other, and just generally not cooperate.




A little masking tape helps keep the bundle of wires in place.











Close-up of the bundle, ready for the first wrap.





Now I have placed the first wrap, and slid down 2 beads, in preparation for placing the second wrap.








The wraps are falling into place











About half-way done now.









Getting there.









All the wraps are in place, and I need to finish up the ends.








The ends are all trimmed up, and it is time to form the bracelet on the mandrel. After the bracelet is form, I will fashion the hook.








All finished!









Here is the finished bracelet, next to the chainmaille bracelet I also made yesterday.

Next weekend, I will tackle this project with CD's gorgeous emerald peyote beads.

Thanks for the idea and the assist CD - it turned out great, huh?

13 comments:

Melody Marie Murray said...

Wow! Gorgeous work, both of you.

Sweet Freedom said...

Thanks melody!

Carol Dean Sharpe said...

It turned out better than I had hoped! Beautiful! :D

GrandmaMarilyn said...

Wow!!!! I love them both. Never thought to do beaded beads that way. Way to go ladies.

Amber Leilani said...

that's GORGEOUS!!!!! both of you are way too talented!

Enchanted Beads said...

It is a wonderful collaboration! I always loved the combination beadwork - precious metal.

adina said...

It definitely did turn out great! :-)

:-) MaryLou said...

Lesley - That collaboration is truly inspired! I really love the clean lines of the wirewrapping, and the beaded beads really make that bracelet something special. :-)

Sweet Freedom said...

Oh - thank you all for visiting and commenting. Couldn't have done it without you, CD!

Hope others will love it, too!

Anonymous said...

Hah, Oh I love your mail delivery system (!!) and the collaboration came out beautifully - just gorgeous!!

retrothreads said...

What a great idea ! The combo is terrific ! I finally took the plunge to learn a wire technique, viking knit, to pair with my beadweaving. Hoping to post about it tomorrow in my blog.

Kerrie Slade said...

Great idea, great outcome and love the work in progress pictures!

Cool collaboration Lesley and CD :)

Sweet Freedom said...

Thanks everybody!

Sharon - Bailey is definitely a big help with my beading! lol

Retro - I've never heard of Viking Knit - I'll have to cruise over and check out your blog!