The Bead Spot

Last week, I was still battling a sinus infection, and some of the medicine the doctor gave me made me sleepy. As a result, I got very little work done on the bracelet I was working on. I even spent a couple of my lunches at work resting. This week should be better, though. The sinus infection seems to finally be gone, so I'm down to taking just the antibiotics. Revamping Etsy I also haven't had a chance to make any changes to my Etsy store yet, but I hope to add more photos of the items I have for sale -- a black seed bead bracelet , a green seed bead bracelet and a kids bracelet -- within the next few weeks. I think all three items would benefit from me spending some time trying to get better photos, especially the kids bracelet. That photo makes the white beads look as if they have a reddish tint to them.

Yesterday, my baby girl was fussing while I was trying to get some cleaning done because she wanted to be picked up. I tried to distract her, so I looked around and grabbed the nearest thing I could find -- one of the kids bracelets I completed last week. I stretched it out and snapped it around her wrist. While it had a little wiggle room on her wrist, it fit a lot more snuggly than I would've preferred. She's only 1 year old. How well will they fit on older children, who are, by the way, my target customer? I've decided that, to ensure I have bracelets big enough for children up to about age 7, I'm going to need to make more in a larger size. I have just a little more than a week to do it. Grrrr.

I wasn't able to take a photo of my new kids bracelet before posting, so I've included it here (foreground), along with a photo of the right-angle weave bracelet I've been working on for more than a month now. During my lunch hour at work yesterday, I was able to make a little more progress on it, very little, not quite a complete row. I don't plan to make another kids bracelet until I get the rose one finished. Last evening as I was driving home from work, I started having some thoughts about how I'd like to do the clasp for it. I'm thinking the bar-and-toggle style.

I'm thinking about attending another arts and crafts festival very soon, even though I still don't have a whole lot of stuff to show. The good news is that booths for this event are free, unlike the last one that cost $75. Getting there won't be cheap, and I'm sure to dine out at least once that day, so to even break even, I probably need to sell about $25 worth. So, I need to get some work done, and quickly. I'm still working on my rose-colored bracelet , even though I don't think I've had the chance to work on it even one time in the past week. In fact,  I'm still far enough away on finishing it that I figured it wouldn't be ready for the upcoming festival. Instead, I decided to see how much kids stuff I could whip out between now and then. When I headed off to work Tuesday, I packed my lunch and a bunch of beads. This is what I made on my lunch hour: Now, if only I could make another five or six of those before the festival.

My 11-year-old nephew tagged along with me to the arts and crafts festival , toting 32 kids bracelets he made himself. They were single-strand and stretchy, and looked pretty good. He sold a total of four. I wish he had done better, because it would've been nice for him to get a little more payoff for the time he put into them (then again, I put in more time in the stuff I took, paid $75 for the booth and walked away with only $22), but maybe next time. Hopefully, he's not too discouraged to keep at it, because he was a little disappointed he didn't sell more. The clock is ticking on how long he'll be interested in beading: He went to watch the OKC Thunder play a few months ago, and after he got back, he was showing me the photos he had taken. He had more of the cheerleaders than the players. I wish I had taken photos of his bracelets. They looked pretty good, good enough to draw the eye of four children.

I still feel good that people who attended the festival liked the  stretchy bracelets I made. Despite my plans to make 10 of them to take with me, I completed only three. But, they all sold. I hope to be able to make some more and sell them on Etsy soon.

Here is another kid-size bracelet I've worked on. I like this pattern, but I think it might be a little to dark to appeal to little kids. I'm thinking about making a few with plastic beads, which I have on hand in pastel colors, which kids might like better.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been working on these stretchy kids bracelets. So far, I have only these two completed, both with a rather simple checkerboard pattern. I'm in the process of finishing a third which has a diamond pattern, but it wasn't far enough along to include in this photo.

I've finally completed one of the kids bracelets using the size 6 beads and the stretch string. It's got a checkerboard pattern. I wish now that I had bought more than just opaque colors so that I'd have a little more flexibility in style.

My box of beads and supplies arrived in the mail Saturday. I've been having a good time working on my kids bracelets. I haven't completed one yet. I'm still mulling patterns, which I probably should do on paper. So far, I've started three bracelets, then decided I didn't like what it looked like, so I unraveled it. So, before I begin yet another, I think I'll sketch it out. The size 6 beads, by the way, are working great with the stretchy string.

I've decided that I'm going to try to make the kids' bracelets with larger beads. I hope that I'll be able to get the knots secure enough that a child wouldn't break it easily. My 4-year-old niece is always good for giving stuff a trial run. Once I get the bracelets the way I want them, I plan on debuting them on Etsy , hopefully sometime this summer.

This is a simple project that uses 11/0 beads in the ladder stitch on a thin wire (I cannot remember what gauge this is). I've made these with my nephews a time or two, but not for a year or so now. My oldest niece just turned 4 years old, and I think it's something she'd enjoy doing. Maybe the next time I'm over for a visit, I'll take my bead stash and see if she wants to make rings. I'm very much looking forward to the day that I can show my own little girl how to make these.