Monday, January 9, 2012

Vintage Seed Bead Bracelets

When my husband came home from helping his grandma for the day, he handed me this old tin box. Inside held a long strand of colorful vintage seed beads. Grammy Siegel knows I make jewelry. She was cleaning up around her house and thought I might like them. Do I ever! I love them! As soon as I opened the beautiful aged metal box, I was inspired to start creating right away.

I decided I would make one of my signature multiple-stand bracelets to really show off the seed beads. I pulled out some purple Irish waxed linen cord. Then, I looked around in my stash for a few rustic beads to compliment the nature of the seed beads: An orange Kieth O'Connor ceramic bead, a copper African trade bead, and a Hill Tribe silver flower button for the closure.

Here is the finished bracelet! 


After I finished the first bracelet, I still had a some beads left over, so I decided to make a second piece. I strung the seed beads onto some 24 gauge wire and wire-wrapped them around 2mm leather cord to create this second bracelet. Simple, but I love the effect!

I'm thrilled with how these both turned out!

15 comments:

  1. They are both great! The second one is extra cool though! You always impress me Erin with the wonderful things you create!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are gorgeous! You know I love my seeds!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love them both - might give that wire-wrap-around-leather technique a try!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful Erin! I love your photography too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love,love,love the wire wrapping w/ the seed beads, great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful! I have a very long strand of these vintage 'christmas' beads in my stash somewhere, you have made me want to go look for them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooooh, The first one is my favorite! Beautiful work as always, Erin!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I really love what you've done with some really simple beads. Stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sweet! The way you do that signature loops with the cord is always so inspiring to me. Will those instructions be in your book by any chance? I have never worked with Irish linen before but you make it look so effortless! Well done!
    Enjoy the day.
    Erin (the other ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love both of these and have just recently purchased several strands of African Christmas beads for another project and thought I might use the leftovers for one of these projects. I use buttons a lot in my leather bracelets but haven't worked much with the Irish linen/waxed linen. I am looking forward to your book for inspiration to get more involved with cord and leather. I put together one of the multi strand bracelets but I am wondering if you have a clean way to get all the cords neatly thru the button shank and finished off. Love the way you do the loop.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi, I posted my comment about your bracelets and the button before reading a blog by Nina Bagley and now I am questioning asking you about attaching a button. I certainly do not mean to overstep by asking a question.

    ReplyDelete

I live for comments! Please do share your thoughts...