Beaded Bracelets

The other day I had the house to myself for a blissful day, and decided that I wasn’t feeling like sewing, but instead I felt like crafting – beading!  I picked up these gorgeous Art Deco-inspired metal, rhinestone and enamel (?) beads/spacers/whatever from Michael’s Bead Gallery a while ago, with some idea brewing in my mind – and finally got the chance to put something together after grabbing some elastic thread.

Starting with the beads....

The first bracelet is a double strand of jet black glass beads with a single silver-toned spacer with clear rhinestones and jet black glass cabochons. I thought that I had taken a photo – but apparently not….

The second is just the silver-toned spacers with the jet black glass beads between them.

Pretty spacers

The third is a gold-tone Art Deco-inspired metal and rhinestone slider, also with the jet black glass beads.

Even more elaborate spacers

I put off getting the elastic thread for a while – hoping to find clasps that would work instead – but no luck on that front.  I don’t really like most clasps for bracelets – they make them hard to put on.  Yet, I really don’t like elastic thread either – first off it doesn’t look very classy/professional, and secondly after seeing how the clear elastics that I use for dreadfalls tend to disintegrate after a while, I don’t have a lot of faith in the thread maintaining it’s stretch and resilience over time either… the idea of re-stringing a bracelet isn’t a huge deal… but the idea of a bracelet breaking when I’m out and about – spilling my beads all over the place doesn’t appeal to me either. Still, they certainly are a LOT easier to put on and take off with the elastic string instead of a fiddly clasp.

Has anyone used this thread for a while – how has it stood up to the test of time for you? Please let me know in the comments below!