A black and white Valentine

What with Valentine's Day coming up, I thought I'd do a post about one of my Valentine-related pieces.

It came about because I randomly picked up some black and white coated chain in the Beads Direct sale. I thought it looked interesting, and when it turned up it was more interesting than I'd expected - the links are huge!

I decided to make the most of that fact, and wove some silver chain in and out of the links, and fixed it at each end with a jump ring, with a silver clasp at one end and a length of the coated chain at the other to serve as an extender.

To match the monotone feel of the necklace, I dug out some of the black, clear, and smokey grey glass charms from the batch in the last post. They're supposed to be leaves, but I think they look like hearts.

And there you have it - a bracelet for someone who likes their romance a little less pink and sweet. :)

Introduction

Back in November, I stumbled into making jewellery.

Stumbled is the right word, really. I was browsing Etsy, looking for a Steampunk necklace. I bought one I liked, then somehow ended up buying some charms and findings as well. Before I knew it I'd added to the collection: beads, more charms, charity shop finds to dismantle. A couple of magazines later and I was making my own necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

This wasn't one of my first projects, but it's the one that means most to me so far. When I was eight or so I had a leaf charm bracelet. It jangled with metal and plastic charms in dark colours, bronze and purple. I loved it, but it was quite conspicuous and I was not a confident child. I stopped wearing it, and because I wasn't wearing it eventually got rid of it.

I've really regretted it, and taking up making my own jewellery seemed to be the perfect cue to replicate at least the feel of that long-gone bracelet. I bought some glass leaf charms...

... and some antiqued bronze charms from Etsy, and along with some charms taken from charity-shop necklaces I made this.

The chain is a shortened charity shop find in an antique colour. It's not the same as the bracelet I used to have, but it jangles pleasantly and I really like wearing it. It's a little heavy on the bronze charms at the moment, but I aim to replace sme of them as I come across other leaf charms I like. On the whole I'm very pleased with it though.