Creating an ArTlinks bracelet: two attempts at 'Wattle'

Recently I did a post called ‘Inspired by Wattle’ .. well it was enough to inspire me into making a green and gold bracelet. Whilst I was writing the article I dug into the bead box and pulled out what I had that made me think of wattle .. green and gold and dash of twiggy brown.

So here is a quick journey into making my wattle bracelet.

Step 1: Be inspired and grab the beads which fit the project.

I am undertaking a mission not to buy any beads and only use what is in my own storage. I really would have liked some brighter, yellow opaque beads but clear yellow had to suffice. I can work with what I have.

Lay out the desired design of the beads. This gave me the opportunity to balance the colours, sizes and shapes for the overall finish. Here I had a good combination of dark and light as well as the required green and gold.

Step 2: Wrap the beads as per my previous ‘Making A Rainbow bracelet’

Step 3: Then add your ArTlinks chain. You can make the chain using my unique ArTlink tool now available on Etsy.

Here I chose to use copper coloured artistic wire but I don’t like the finished look! The whole bracelet suddenly looks a bland two-tone copper and mid-green. I have lost the yellow, lost the shadows and lost the little charms amongst the clutter. (Sorry about the slightly blurred photos).

Step 4: Time for plan B – make some changes!

Here I am trialling whether I change some of the copper links for olive to add the twigginess back into the design. I also removed a solid green bead to reduce the clutter.

I decide this is definitely the way to go and thinned out some other greens along the way. I also add some extra white glass pearls to create some additional highlights to the finish. I now think I have been able to capture shadow and highlights, the colors and the twiginess all in one.