Bracelet Exchange - The Beginning

Lorelei and I are hosting a bracelet round-robin swap. We each started with the beginning of a bracelet and then they were all sent to me. I added to each one and sent them to Lorelei. She'll do the same and send them along to our next participant. At the end of the swap we'll each get the bracelet back that we started. Sounds like fun doesn't it? The bracelets above are the starts that were sent to me. They belong to: Lorelei Eurto, Erin of Every Heart Crafts, Erin of Tesori Trovati, and Christine of Stories They Tell.

First up was Lorelei's bracelet. I added a lampwork SueBeads, a lime green branch bead and a big ol' Vintaj jumpring to echo the shape of the glass disks. I love the playful focal bead that Lorelei picked, should have bought some at Bead & Button. It was hard to know how much or how little to add to each bracelet, but I went by the guide of what "felt" right for each design.

Now, you may have noticed that Christine sent just a bead. She wasn't slacking, she really wanted a surprise and didn't want to influence the bracelet designs. Ah, complete freedom! I thought I'd work with the shape of the bead and had this great oval brass chain that works so well with the dark red color of Christine's focal bead. By pure happenstance I had made these poppy charms the week before - perfect. And to add a little zing, a bright green leaf from Earthenwood Studio.

Now Erin's bracelet was a little summer wisp of stones on waxed linen. I immediately thought it could use another strand via some gunmetal chain. I wanted to stay with the pastel color scheme and added in some stones, a crystals and a Humblebeads disk. And how could Erin not have one of her leaves on her bracelet, so I had to add one for her. Silly girl, she probably thinks I'm a nut for adding one of her beads to her own bracelet. Even if it wasn't Erin's bracelet I would have added the leaf, it was just calling to me.

I was so impressed with Erin's bracelet start. She packed more beads and work into 1" then I would have thought possible. I don't think my photo does it justice. The clasp is a coin that has been dapted and filled with resin, then a million little wire-wrapped dangles were added. I wanted to add to the earthy, opulent feel of the design so I added some glass disks from Blue Seraphim in the colors that were in the dangles. And the connector part of the clasp I decided to add my lime branch lentil. I hope Erin likes green! It will be fun to see how everyone fills in the space from the end of the chain to connector of the clasp.

And here is my start. I followed suit with the design that has the clasp and the connector and will enjoy seeing how this bracelet will come together. I used my Spring Branch lentil, a Mamacita Beadworks button as a dangle and some silver colored chain that has a great matte finish.

So that is the start of our swap. I've seen Lorelei's additions and they are amazing. I can't wait to see what returns to me at the end of our game! Lorelei took much better photos of the bracelets, read her blog post to see them in a different light.

The swap was inspired by the book, A Charming Exchange: 25 Jewelry Projects To Create & Share and I highly recommend picking up a copy for yourself!