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About Me

chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
I love to create one of a kind jewelry that is unique, different, and of course, beautiful. I work with several techniques and materials. I do wire wrapping, metal working, and beadweaving. Much of my work is for sale at my Etsy shop and my Zibbet shop (see link at the bottom of this profile.) You can also contact me directly. I have much more than is displayed in either shop. You can contact me through e-mail. I accept payment through PayPal. I'll also be happy to work with you on custom orders. Just tell me what you want and I'll try to accommodate. And thanks for looking! *Please note that these are my original designs and are copyrighted. Please do not copy my designs. Thank you for your artisic integrity and consideration. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.clairecreations.etsy.com http://www.zibbet.com/clairecreations

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Newest Freeform bracelet -getting ready

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This is my newest freeform bracelet creation. I meant to upload this one as the second, but forgot that Blogspot always puts the last post up front. Anyway, This - and the next post -- are mainly for my Etsy friends who say they are a bit afraid of trying freeform. I hope this will help you get started.
The top 3 photos are the focals which will be incorporated into the bracelet.-- the last one is not yet beaded and may or may not end up in this bracelet. The bottom two photos show some (but not all) of the beads I've dumped on my table for possible incorporation into the finished product. I may not use all of these, but may yet pull out some others -- depending on how things fit together and how it looks.
I use mostly peyote stitch, but in places where I've added larger or smaller beads -- or the focals, peyote won't quite work, so I fill in with improvisations -- ladder stitch, brick stitch, a bit of stringing -- whatever will fill the space and do what I want it to do.
To keep things in perspective, I've draw a very rough template of how large I want the bracelet to be -- around 6-1/2 inches long (clasp will be added to this) and around 1-1/2 inches wide, but this varies. From time to time, I lay the bracelet on the template to be sure I'm somewhat keeping within my 'boundaries.'
One time, I didn't do this and ended up with part of the bracelet around 3" wide -- and had to rip out a lot. I also sort of plan where I'll put the focals.
Anyway, this is how I work my freeform. Feel free to ask me any questions, but please do not copy my design.
-- See the next post for the beginning of the bracelet and more information on how I work it.

10 comments:

adina said...

Claire, your freeform process looks really, really cool! Makes me want to (finally) try freeform!

GrandmaMarilyn said...

Thank you for explaining how you do free form. Maybe it will help me.

GrandmaMarilyn said...

Your bracelet is beginning to look wonderful.

Melody Marie Murray said...

Cool post, thanks! I love posts with lots of photos like this.

ClaireCreations said...

Thanks for looking. Now go ahead and do your own freeform and show it to me as you work.

Kerrie Slade said...

Fascinating Claire - thanks for sharing :)

Jean Hutter said...

I love doing freeform - it is, well freeing! Your freeform pieces are always awesome

ClaireCreations said...

Thanks for the nice comments.

HDB said...

Can't wait to see how you connect these pieces together.

ClaireCreations said...

I never know just how the pieces will come together.