Fatal Frame Charm Bracelet

I play more video games than Zelda series additions.  Unfortunately, I have this horrible condition: I always get stuck on the stupidest, easiest task.  Every RPG, action adventure, fantasy, and platformer has a set of levels or mandatory minigames that involve skills that have nothing to do with the regular game play.  You know what I'm talking about.  The race, the timed task, the weird trivia game.  They all have one and I always get stuck on it.  Oh.  I can take down your toughest boss, but I can't break all the barrels in 30 seconds.  It's a personal flaw.

I also can't play horror games without screaming and crying.  I'll admit it.  However, I can make a mean charm bracelet.  This one is themed after the Fatal Frame franchise.  I was staring at some of the charms my dear friend gave me last year and some random beads from an assortment I bought not too long ago.  I also found some silver camera charms. 

Originally intended for something, else, these particular charms and beads looked GOOD together and reminded me of something I'd played a long, long time ago.  Fatal Frame.  You know, that horror survival game based on the old belief that having your photo taken steals part of your soul.  It sends you running around in haunted locations with a cursed camera, defeating ghosts by capturing their essence in Polaroids. 

I did something different with this charm bracelet. Not only did a I use a variety of dark beads and add much more to it than I normally would.  I also added some chain tassels between increments of beads and charms to give it more depth.  It gave the bracelet and interesting and charmingly sparkling appeal.  Pretty fitting for a bracelet based on a game that involves photos stealing souls, huh? 

Dinn's Fire Necklace

Since I can't seem to create any sort of Zelda fanart bracelet and keep it for any length of time, I've decided to try for necklaces.  They're guaranteed to be too out there for anyone to want to buy them.  Here's my interpretation of Dinn's fire in necklace form.

Hopefully I can figure out a design for Farore's Wind and Nayru's love relatively soon.  Last thing I need is for someone to see this, buy it and have it missing from my next attempt at photographing the pieces TOGETHER.

Chibi Jack Skellington Charm Bracelet

These charms were cute and on sale and in the same lot as the charms for the last Jack Skellington Bracelet.  One great thing about Disneyana (any and all Disney related and licensed merchandise) is that related objects share common dimensions.  The Jack Skellington charms, for example are all about 3-4 cm long and 2-3 cm wide.  So are most of the charms for other characters.

Chibi Jacks

This sort of consistency makes it easy to create patterns and design maps that would fit a wide variety of charms without too much alteration in execution or pattern.  It's a reliable model.  You see, there's a bit of science in every jewelry project.  Physics, geometry, and a host of scientific units of measure come into play.  Jewelry making is architecture. 

It's a charm bracelet.

So the reliable Disneyana metrics have allowed me to design an equally reliable metric for gauging how easily I can take on a new project when I'm suffering from shaky hands.  If I can complete a Jack Skellington or Disneyana charm bracelet in close to my usual time frame, it's good idea for me to start on a more intensive, strenuous project.  It also serves as a good warm up.

I'm sure I'll make more.  I have a ton of charms to burn through. 

Beads in the top right of the picture...  Clearly, there's more to come..

Ladder Bracelets

What if I told you that there are simple bracelets that you can make with fewer than 40 beads?
Would you be inspired to make something magical?  Something punk?  Something industrial?  Or would you keep complaining that you don't have enough beads in your stash to do anything?  

Introducing the Ladder Bracelet!! 

I'm certain that the idea is not new, by any means.  Still, I realized that with 12-14 inches of chain and a small handful of beads, you can make a pretty funky bracelet.  It doesn't require a whole lot of beaded chain or stringing or anything like that.  Just simple wire work.

I was looking at some odd chain I had laying around and some beads that weren't quite enough to do what I originally wanted when I realized that the positioning of chain links ALWAYS follows an alternating pattern that puts adjacent links at perpendicular to one another.  Their positioning makes it possible to thread things like wire with beads on it through the links to form something of a ladder.  That is what I did. 

As you can see above, depending on how large the bead is and how large the chain links are, I use about 16-32 beads to make one ladder bracelet.  The beauty of this design is that it requires so few materials and works up very fast.  In the end, you have a neat bracelet with a lot of versatility. 

 

Why don't you guys give it a try and post links to your ladder bracelets in the comments? 

How Charming

Charm bracelets are one of my least favorite jewelry item to make, wear and even SEE.  I've always thought of them as tacky.  When they first became super popular in the mid 90's (that's the earliest time I remember seeing them at least), they disgusted me.  A charm bracelet is essentially a trophy collection that you wear around your wrist.   It's easy to go overboard. 

What a hideous notion.  Keeping everything that you feel defines you dangling off your wrist to show off to the world.  That can quickly become hideously gaudy.  It violates all of my mysteriously present Victorian sensibilities and inclinations against bragging.

While I abhor the idea of charm bracelets because of their tendency to stray into the 'that's waaaay overboard' territory so easily, I have discovered some charm in themed bracelets.  These bracelets operate on similar mechanics and design principles as charm bracelets...however they tend to revolve around a specific theme or aesthetic.

For example, one of my bracelets that has long since left my possession:

Notice the recurring colors, charms and uniform placement of the elements.

This one is a handful of strawberry lockets, enameled beads, and Czech glass.  It follows a  color scheme, uniform pattern, and all of the recurring elements are positioned at different heights so their individual visibility is maximized.  It's not busy and it doesn't look like you put your trophy room on your arm in an attempt to validate your worth as a human being. 

Unfortunately, Themed Bracelets, still fall in the realm of Charm Bracelets, so, there's that.  Well, enough of that.  I'll show you more pictures of my Themed Bracelets so far.

I'm a 'Spooky Kid' so there should be no surprise that Jack Skellington is here.

And finally a Captain America inspired charm bracelet I made somewhat recently.  Well, that's all for this post.  Happy Crafting!


Some photos from Curated Objects.US