A mothers bracelet - of sorts

I got an order for a "typewriter key bracelet" for a woman who wanted the piece to have the first initial of each family member. In addition to the antique typewriter keys, I used 19 gauge stainless steel to create the coil components............
the spiraled "S" clasp, and the jumprings.

I used 22 gauge stainless steel to wrap the gy-normous and gorgeous Amazonite rounds (I got them at Magpie Gemstones, of course!)

All together a very funky, different sort of mothers bracelet!

Black Steel and Brass Wire

Gotta love Christmas - got a bunch of new wire to play with and here are the fruits of my labor. For the first bracelet I used the black annealed steel wire to make some coil components and wrap some pretty pink faceted glass beads, crafted some jump rings and added the antique typewriter keys to spell out A-N-D. I handcrafted a spiraled "S" clasp and added an extender chain and a wrapped bead so it would fit different sizes. I've made a few projects with these antique keys and I love them........but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what I choose to spell out.........some would say I give my muse too much latitude!!!

In this bracelet I used 18 and 20 gauge brass wire - I love working with brass - some don't like the natural patina it gets (a mellow golden brown), but I do. Besides, it's easy to keep clean - swish it around in a lemon juice and salt mixture and it brightens right back up. Anyway, I found a tutorial on the Starving Artists forum (great place to learn and drool over pretties)for a wire wrapped bead bangle and tried it out. I think because I used some 10mm beads the wire measurements were a little off, but the tutorial is clear and well illustrated and I like the end result. So, because my bracelet was a little short on length, I added some jump rings, a hammered brass clasp and a wrapped bead to extend the length a bit. I made an extender chain so it would fit more sizes.

These two necklaces are some simple ones I made for my nieces for Christmas - the beads are actually small perfume beads from the Netherlands - I found them at my LBS and thought they would be perfect for each girl. I added a hammered and textured silver ring, some silver chain and a quaint little silver heart shaped lobster clasp.