Rosy Ribbons

Vintage inspired beaded ribbon bracelets

I love the fashion for wrapped bracelets and my Huckeberry Buckle workshop is all about beaded ribbons and embellished buckles. I can now confess that when I first designed it was a working 'in theory' idea.
A beaded ribbon is not like a real ribbon, it is rigid, it takes up space, it needs to have room to move and it definitely hates being pushed in and out of a buckle repeatedly.
What followed was a search for a neat and dainty, yet everso discreet clasp that I could include in my design, getting me past the technical hitch stages and back into gorgeous design territory again.
Happily the 'in-line' clasps, which I now have in my little store, are perfect for any narrow beaded bracelet designs and have proved really popular. At shows I have a demonstration bracelet, which is a double or triple length wrap bracelet... can't tell you how many times I've been asked for the pattern!
So, the pattern is now included with all orders for in-line clasps, it's also to celebrate that I have a new colour of clasp in store now, to go with matt vintage bronze finish and shiny silver plate there is now a slinky dark shiny pewtery gunmetal colour too...mmm

Handmade Living

Handmade Living magazine is featuring a lovely Peyote stitch ribbon bracelet in the current issue, which makes me happy happy! because it's one of my designs. Plus there's the promise of a bonus pattern on-line. You can find their site here.
I'm loving the way they have presented the design, in fact the whole issue is full of projects I'd love to make.
For the bracelet I've put together a materials pack in three delicious colour ways, Lavender, Denim or Spice, which include everything readers will need to complete the design. I've also included some notes for beginners, a kind of FAQ check list to help you get started.

Denim, Spice and Lavender

I'm doubly excited because the design includes the little clasps which I've just started using and sell here too. It's taken just ages to find the style of clasp which can be used with narrow beadwork. Once I'd finally found that, yes they are made how I'd imagined them, it's taken another few months of wearing and road testing samples with various bead and thread configurations, just to make sure they really do work. Now they are, at long last in stock, and I can start writing up more of the designs that started my questing for clasps in the first place... somehow that 'to do' list never seems to get any shorter!