Take a Second Look

If you've been to the Ben Franklin Crafts' Bead Shoppe recently, you've probably noticed the bunches of elastic bead bracelets on sale for 2/$7. While they are wearable and rather nice for the price, I don't like elastic bracelets because inevitably the elastic will break. I was drawn to the basket of sale bracelets because the beads used in them were of good quality. The beads made of shells, pearls, semi-precious gemstones, and glass would definitely be more expensive if you bought them by the strand.

I purchased lots of the shell bracelets and decided to try creating some jewelry using the long two holed shell bead. The photo (click on it to see details) shows the results of combining the long, rectangular iridescent bead with pearls, gemstones, and a few crystals. When I have some free time I will post the instructions for the necklace on the bfcraftclub website. I also bought an elastic bracelet that was made with square, pink, two-holed, shell beads. I'm thinking of combining the pink shells with some pearls and rose quartz to make a more stylish bracelet.