Copper Dutch Spiral Bracelet

Two days before the Frankfort show, my boyfriend Dan was helping me with some final project finish-up by working on a second Dutch Spiral bracelet.  He'd chosen vivid dark red twisted bugle beads that were longer than what we usually use, and had made it all the way to the clasp, only he forgot to add a piece and would have had to take the entire thing apart and start over.  I told him not to worry about it and just start on a different one so he wouldn't want to throw the redo out the window, so the night before the show he started in on this beauty.  Again, he picked out the beads himself from one of the sites I recommended to him, and he finished it at 2am on show day.  I think it's one of my all-time favorite pieces.  This and his aqua version were the talk of the Frankfort show.  He's just purchased more of the copper bugles with the intention of making me a choker to match.  Isn't it beautiful?

Name: Copper Dutch Spiral Bracelet

Price: $15 (note: instead of Swarovski bicones, he used sterling silver stardust 6mm rounds)

Length: approx. 9"

Aqua Dutch Spiral Bracelet

And here is the finished product: Dan's first Dutch Spiral bracelet!  He used aqua twisted bugle beads and silver metal seed beads, aqua Swarovski bicones, and a silver leaf clasp I had in my findings box.  It was the talk of the Frankfort show!

Name: Aqua Dutch Spiral bracelet

Price: $15 (turned into a gift for Dan's grandma for Christmas, 2011)

Length: approx. 9.5"

Twisted Sister Bracelet

This is one of the new techniques I learned this year.  I am a huge fan of FusionBeads.com, which is not only a beading supplier but provides how-tos, and a wide variety of inspirational projects.  They have good sales and plenty of contests, one of which I won this January: a $25 gift certificate.  I bought one of their bracelet kits, called Twisted Sister by Jill Wiseman of TapestryBeads.com.  It included all of the beads and materials needed to make the bracelet, as well as a how-to CD.  It was one of the funnest techniques I have learned to date.  Twisted Sister is actually a take on the Dutch Spiral technique.  I liked it so much I'm working on a second, with dark metallic eggplant twisted bugles and bright gold metal seed beads.  The bugles I bought are 11mm instead of 9mm, which makes the bracelet a lot stiffer and bigger, but it's neat all the same.

 

Name:  Twisted Sister, design by Jill Wiseman of Tapestry Beads; kit available through FusionBeads.com


Price: $25 for kit on FusionBeads (personal collection)


Length: 8"