Cathedral Garden Bracelet

Next up in my continuing obsession with peyote shapes à la Diane Fitzgerald: this bracelet inspired by the idea of a lavender garden outside a grey stone Gothic cathedral!

The amethyst emerald-cut Swarovski crystals are a vintage set I bought on clearance and have had waiting around forever: here's a similar set currently available on Etsy.

On the whole I believe this bracelet is a success: it has a delicacy and an antique flavor that are very appealing. I've worn it with a couple of outfits and enjoyed the slide of the metallic hex Delicas against my wrist. However, there are a few points I would try and fix in a second version:

Revision suggestions for Cathedral Garden Bracelet: different connections, different clasp, more precise bezeling.

Definitely a design to revisit and revise in future!

Roads Not Taken:

  • This piece has a lot of room for variation: round rivolis matched with peyote rings, for instance, or pear-shaped stones mixed with peyote teardrops (reversed in orientation, to keep the rhythm regular). 
  • Could also do one larger central stone with empty shapes to either side. Hexagons and honeycomb colors might be splendid here.
  • Also: could build a puzzle bracelet out of only the empty shapes, with varying colors in the center and silver to bridge the shapes together. Could be quietly dazzling.

Rivoli Play Time

Bezeled crystal rivolis: I love them. Love making them, love wearing them. They have the individuality and creativity of handcrafted jewelry, with the sparkle and glamor of big-budget pieces. Over the years I've bought a ton of Swarovski on clearance, found vintage treasures on Etsy, and even scored some discontinued or sample crystal stones from a friend who works for  a local retailer. I love to pull all these shinies out and run my hands through them, like a greedy pirate with a treasure chest. But I'm not as good about actually using them. I never want to turn the glittering potential into something that doesn't live up to my hopes. I'm trying to be better about this: all the bead dreams in the world won't do you any good if you never actually make anything.

So: I started with an inspiration -- there to the left.

Ancient-looking geometric multi-stone pendant on a round gold necklace base.

Nice, right? Modern but raw, asymmetric, just the right balance between minimalist and decadent. And totally recreateable with beads: an important consideration.

I realized I had amassed an accidental collection of rivolis of various shapes in shades of blue and green; I pulled out Delicas in a spectrum of gold and amber and went to work. The result? This lovely thing below, which I'm calling the Rivoli Puzzle Bracelet, because putting all the pieces together was something of a puzzle. What started as a pendant or a brooch had to become a bracelet when I realized there was no way this collection of stones could be made symmetrical.

Rivoli Puzzle Bracelet.

I have taken a couple classes from the great Laura McCabe, whose peyote bezeling technique is unparalleled. (Both books also highly recommended.) There's a bit of improvisation at play here -- navettes are still a bit of a bastard to put bezels around -- but on the whole I think it's one of the most successful pieces I've ever made. I plan on wearing it to every holiday party I'm invited to this year.

The big question as I finished the final bezel was this: how to embellish the peyote base? Ultimately, as with the Citrus Mess bracelet, I decided against embellishment, counting on the shape and color variations to give the piece movement and interest. Any embellishment I thought of sounded fussy and overdone, and would ruin the quiet strength of the developing piece.

Roads Not Taken:

  • One thing I learned is that putting a bright solid-color bezel around a lighter unfoiled rivoli means you get reflections, like pebbles on the bottom of a pond. Definitely something I want to try again in a more deliberate way.
  • I would love to get stones and Delicas in two contrasting colors and play around with intensity, such as the coral and green colors in this pin.
  • Alternatively, I would like to get a set of identical stones and then add embellishment details, such as in this lovely Lalique bracelet.

 

Revisions: Peyote Hex Chain.

Once more we play our dangerous game. A game called: Surely This Could Be Better. Today's piece is one I've just finished. It's a Diane Fitzgerald variation -- you're going to see a lot of Diane Fitzgerald variations, because making peyote shapes pleases my fingers in some wordless way.

A string of peyote hexagons in a spectrum from dark green to light green to pale silver to lavender to dark purple.

There are definite pleasures here. The chain has weight to it and all those Delicas really catch the light, especially the hex beads. (Hex beads in hex shapes are just about my favorite thing in the world. You'll be seeing more of these as well.) The spectrum holds together nicely, considering I cobbled it together from the odds and ends of my stash. But if I were to make this piece over again, there would be some changes:

Hex peyote chain with problem points circled.

  • Chain too short: A failure of planning, and probably the most frustrating error. This piece was envisioned as a solid necklace, long enough to do without a clasp. But once I got about halfway through the color spectrum, I found it would really be more like bracelet-length. But it's far too thick and chunky to lay properly as a bracelet -- I cobbled together a necklace extender to make it wearable, but it's a slapdash fix and it shows. Options: to make a rope or chain to support the hexagons, which doesn't appeal, or to make another length of the same chain and fix it together. Somehow this feels kind of ... gimmicky is the word, I think. And it would be a trifle too long. Perhaps the solution is to make a series of smaller hexagons on either end of the chain, which lead to a clasp? Something to consider when I'm in the Sulky Land Between Projects, where nothing feels inspired but my hands still want something to do.
  • Abrupt transitions: I could have benefited from a mid-range purple between the dark purple and the lavender beads on the right. Again, I was using stash beads, but still. It stands out more because the green values modulate so pleasingly.
  • Corners are jarring: An experiment that didn't quite work. I'd hoped that by making the corners borrow colors from the neighboring hexagon, the transition between shades would be smoother. Alas, it unsettles the transitions instead, particularly when the shades progress faster than they should. Next time, solid hexagons.

It's actually quite a hard thing, to look at hours of one's own work and find it wanting. Uncomfortable and breathless, like wearing a life vest that's too tight around the bust. But like the life vest, comfort is secondary to the purpose. So I learn what I can, and I hope to do better in the next draft.