Wrap Bracelets and Tiaras oh my!

Saturday started off at The Bead Shop first thing in the morning. It was nice to have the beads all to myself! But they were all sitting there with their sparkly selves saying, "buy me, NO buy me, we can make your piece ROCK!". I had to shut them all out and focus on my task at hand and set up for class. It wasn't easy.

Allow me to make the introductions...below are Carolina and Hatty. Don't you just LOVE that water bottle picture?

Look at them stringing away.

Carolina made a lovely jade bracelet using natural color leather with brown thread. Hatty made a bracelet using lemon chrysoprase. Lemon chrysoprase reminds me of mint chocolate. I just want to eat them all! Anyhoo we all passed a good time.
Carolina and Hatty were a blast to be with in the morning.

Merci Buttercup, Hatty, for that big wonderful carved bead.

Now about those Tiaras...

I was so lucky to take a tiara making class last Tuesday at The Bead Shop with Sarah here in NOLA. I picked up lots of ideas and useful tips and techniques.

I see people buying loads of seed beads and Czech glass and say...WHAT are they doing and why are they buying so many of those beads? So now I know. For tiaras you need lots of filler beads. You know...to fill in the space between your big skull beads and flowers.

All you need to know is a few basic techniques and that is it! Voila! I sit and think about nothing else when making these babies.

First we learned how to make branches. Yay! I did it!

Next you learn how to wire them on to your tiara.

My Dia de los Muertos head dress...I mean tiara. It's not finished yet. I'm going to give the skulls some sparkly eyes and add a few more layers (OF SKULLS and other stuff) to give it more height.

Close up of the skullys.

This one I finished! It is a New Orleans Saints tiara. LOVE IT!!! Except for one thing. The 16 gauge wire that makes the frame is kind of sticking my head. I'm going to wrap velvet ribbon around the entire head portion. That way you won't get stuck AND it will stay in your head better for those jumping up and down moments during ze football games. Well that is it for now.

Namaste
Kalaya

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