Someone asked me what I'm going to do with my December holidays. I answered the person, "Learn a new craft!" And that's just what I've been doing over the weekend.

I'm learning to make wire bracelets! Hoping to add earrings and necklaces to my repertoire soon too, but am starting off with bracelets. And boy, has it been fun! ;)

I'm not into wearing bracelets now (except wrist bands and the plain simple black kinds, and for formal occasions like weddings) and I love my necklaces with a black base. BUT I do not represent womankind in general and I know many women and girls who love pretty bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Thus, my choice to endeavor into this area, because they really make great gifts! :D Women in general love the allure of pearls, precious stones, butterfly charms and just pretty little trinkets ;)

The relatively recent history of how I decided to get into wire bracelet making is this : I wanted to get something nice for the YP girls for Christmas. Last year, Siaw Chek got similar Swarovski necklaces for a group of us girls and I thought it was a really nice gift - having similar necklaces with other girls, as if representing a certain bond.

So I thought of doing something similar for the YP girls this year. Except, not all of them wear necklaces plus it would be too similar an idea coming only the year after!

Hence, I thought of bracelets. I went online to look for suitable ones, and lo and behold - they were priced quite expensively, and the cheap ones reputedly look cheap!

So the idea came to me to make my own ones!!! That started a whole venture into sourcing for the materials needed. I owe a lot of my sourcing needs to someone *coughyouknowwhoyouarecough* ;) Sitting in The Gardens on my iPad on gTalk, she patiently helped me source for the right findings :)

Thus begins my jewellery-making adventure :) I've made 3 so far. Here are the photos :





My very first handmade bracelet! In yellow beads. I had to use the beads I have in my collection, which admittedly is slightly inferior because I bought them years ago with other intentions, not for wire bracelets.



Close up. At first, I have to make the right loops on the wire with the right tools. Then thread in the 3 beads and make the same loops on the opposite end of the wire to close up the opening.

Make several of those, then join them together with jump rings, and a clasp.

Ta-Dah! Simple explanation of how it's done.

I'm giving away that first bracelet I made to someone who loves the color yellow - Hannah ;) It's coming your way, Hannah! To be delivered with Sarah and Bekah's birthday presents :)

After that, I wanted to try some 'hanging' beads, so here's my second bracelet :







Red colored one with hanging butterfly beads. Dunno who to give this to! Anyone want?

And my third one :



White pearl-like beads. I made this without jump rings and with a lobster clasp instead but the lobster clasp failed me :( The lobster clasp sent by my beading resource kinda low quality :(

But I love this best because of it's simplicity. Pretty, white and simple. I already know who I wanna give this to ;) The one who loves white.

By the way, none of the above bracelets I made are for Christmas presents hehe. Or else I won't post it here. Its all my try-outs and I'm giving them all away for fun! :)

Pardon me though, coz it's not as 'fine' and it might be a bit 'cheap looking' coz I went for silver findings instead of brass, pewter or copper. But it's my first few tries, so paham-paham saje lah ;)

Looking forward to making my own gifts :) It's fun ;) Made with lotsa love, tears and sweat hehe ;) Doesn't that make it MORE meaningful? Lol.