Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Blue Willow Bracelet


This bracelet was made for the ArtFire Beadweaver's Guild Challenge. The challenge was chosen by  by Krafty Max for being the Winner of the March Challenge! This is what she says:
Vintage China has always been something I love to look at.  Our work - beadweaving - was also VERY popular when this China was made.  The theme will be - VINTAGE CHINA.  It can be via thecolor scheme, the actual look and style reflecting China or even something that actually encompasses a piece of Vintage China.  Let's have fun and enjoy creating our designs!  ~KM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first patten I thought of was Blue Willow. It has been a favorite of mine since Childhood. My father had brought back a piece of china from when he was in WWII. The story book also was an influence. There are two legends surrounding the scenes in the China patterns. I just love the scenes, the bridge, pagodas and the blue willows themselves.

 My Laptop crashed so I turned to an old cross stitch pattern software program on our ancient computer to plan out the pattern. Then warped the bead loom and started beading it. I was done with two scenes and thought that might be long enough, wrong. So I had to jerry rig a way to put the bracelet back on the loom to finish it. Valuable lesson measure before you take a piece off the loom. All those ends to sew back in and use to attach the magnetic clasp. Found and added some larger accent beads in the old, old stash. Even found some beads made in the pattern of blue willow that are now earrings that will be a freebie for whoever purchases this bracelet. 
Blue Willow Tree and Pagoda
Bridge with Three Men