Quick Patriotic Bracelet

Happy 4th of July, everyone!  I wanted to post this earlier, but I've been running around like a decapitated chicken all day - over to Cindy's this morning to work on some clay pieces for a challenge necklace for the Loose Bead Society then off to a family party.  There's another family party tomorrow, so I may not get a chance to blog.

Anyway, a few days ago I whipped up a relatively quick red, white, and blue bracelet with some focal beads:

As you can see, there are 4 strands of mixed seed beads that come together for the focal beads.  I had to use the thinner white beads around the focal beads to make sure that the seed beads wouldn't fall through the holes.

The hardest part was stringing 4 strands at once.  Fortunately, I didn't drop too many beads!  The other hard part was finishing.  The toggle clasp I used has two holes, so I crimped together two wires for one hole and two for the other.  When I was on the last crimp, the wires were a little too short, and I had a problem getting the ends to cooperate.  If I had thought this through, I would have cut the wires longer.  It worked out, though.  These things often do!

There was going to be a matching necklace, but I got involved in making the Museum layout for yesterday's blog post.  That's fine - I have plenty of time for next year's 4th of July!  (How much do you want to bet that I'll make it on July 2nd?)

Have a safe holiday (what's left of it, anyway!)