Challenge cuff completed, although future design alterations are in the works

I finally finished my cuff for this wondeful challenge! In the future, I would use heavier wire for the frame, but it is wearable as is. After shaping the focal piece to curve to my wrist instead of lying flat, the bracelet fit much better. I am still toying with the idea of adding a few more "tendrilly" elements, but I am leaving it as is for now.

Shaping the challenge cuff

Okay, figured out how to hold the focal piece in the cuff, now I just need to shape it to fit a wrist!. I put it on my own wrist, then shaped it around the edges of my wrist. Ooops! The focal is too flat! So, I have to take it out, reheat it to make it soft and shape it again. Luckily copper wire is soft so I can remove the focal easily, then relplace it just as easily. I ended up shaping the focal on a small juice glass before placing it back into the cuff.

Framing up a cuff

Okay, diagram and focal in hand, I began to frame up the cuff for my challenge today.

 The cuff was inspired by Alexander Damian, who used carnelian and copper, a favorite combination of mine. My friend April has been having fun with shrink plastic, bringing back my love for it, so I decided to do one of my miniature colored pencil paintings on shrink plastic as the focal for my cuff design.

Dawn and Penny, who originally started this challenge, have long since finished their cuffs, with me lagging far behind due to the lack of supplies to finish my original design. Time to play catch up!

I wanted the cuff to center around the autumn themed focal painting and appear "tendrilly," so I hammered (for strength) 16g copper wire after forming it around  the top and bottom of the focal. Then I wrapped 20g copper around it loosely to resemble tendrils.

Now the hard part was to figure out how to hold the focal in the cuff! Next post!

Cuff Challenge -- a whole new idea -- Alexander and April inspired

I ran out of the wire needed to finish my original cuff design, and had really wanted to do something in copper and carnelian to start with, so began the planning of a new cuff design.

I have gotten back into my miniature colored pencil paintings on shrink plastic again, so I have been tearing boxes apart at our new house trying to find the box with the computer discs full of my photos.

I wanted something with warm fall colors in it, and sadly, had lost most of those photos with a computer meltdown a few years back, but I did finally find a suitable photograph. I won a few awards with this photo a few years back, but it has been out of mind since.

So, I did a small painting, baked it to shrink it, then baked it again to soften the edges, intensify the colors and seal the back, plus add shine.

Then I sketched out the bracelet design. I wanted it to incorporate the focal, plus be "tendrilly."

This is the design I came up with, and the focal piece.

It's done day or should I say week three or four

Added some sterling silver beads, more wire, crystal pale pink heart, silver heart, that I banged out of 20 gauge wire.  Pulling, twisting to get into shape.   Big challenge, huge challenge, loads of mistakes but here it is.  I am going to call it My Friendship Bracelet;  why, because this bracelet has played a very large part in finding and enjoy a kindred sole.

Play time!

Since I am a beginner at bracelets and cuffs, after all, I decided to make a simple braided cuff. I used 9 wires in groups of 3. The biggest challenge on this was getting it started. The next one I make like this, I will do in all one color. I think that will make it a little easier to manage. Another challenge was keeping the wires "nested"... in other words, no gaps between the wires in each group of three. It took very controlled bending and equally controlled holding of the wires right near the bending point to get even, undulating curves. This wasn't as easy as I thought going into it. It would have been better to do it first with only three wires to get a feel for making the shape even and the bends precise. Then, I'd have done one with 6 wires, all the same color, and then on from there. I didn't have a plan for how to finish the ends. So, I have solicited advice from JL before I try my next one. I will be making more of these, that's for sure. The bracelet looks really nice on me, and with more practice....

Alexander inspired cuff finished, and nothing like its inspiration!

Well, continuing the story of this cuff. I made the frame so wide that I had to add a lot to fill it with some substance. I laced the looped parts together with the orange rondels, wiring them in one by one. I ran a wire through them as well, for extra stability. Then I looped the green rondels on. The center strip still wasn't wide enough, so I decided to narrow the frame at the middle, a solution that looks great and gives me the option to ad even more to the center strip later if I like. This was a difficult project for me. But I learned so much...Thanks for visiting!-Dawn Blair