Monday 31 March 2008

Spring has sprung (at last)

Spring is here at last...or so it seems. Moving the clocks forward on Saturday night, to mark the start of 'British Summer Time', has prompted a change in the weather. Lets hope that it lasts. I love flowers and find them a constant source of inspiration. My Other Half and I don't have a garden but we do have an allotment. I am ashamed to say that I don't spend as much time, or work as hard on it, as he does. We have one area of the plot dedicated to flowers and last year we planted lots of bulbs, hoping to flood it with colour in the Spring. A few weeks ago we were rewarded with a wonderful show of crocuses. This year I have vowed to go up the allotment more and help out. As well as enhancing my well being - all that exercise and fresh air - it will hopefully feed my creativity at the same time.




Despite having lots of work to do on my current passionflower project I allowed myself to get distracted last week. I made myself a bracelet. It was inspired by 'Crystals Across' designed by Julie Walker and published in the October 2007 'Bead and Button' magazine. I followed Julie's basic design, simplifying it in places and using my own choice of beads. I decided to use the crocuses as my inspiration for the colours - blue and green of course. As often happens the bracelet turned out very different from my imagination. In short I don't like it and will probably be 'frogged' and the beads re-used. I will wear it a couple of times before I do that. Who knows I might grow to like it after a while. I should have done some small samples of the stitch first to test the colours and textures but instead I ploughed straight in, despite what my C & G Tutor Jane has told us repeatedly.















The completed 'Crocus' bracelet.

















Close up of the bracelet. I used freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals to give it sparkle.























A vintage glass button used as a clasp.

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