Orange & the Susan Raber beads

If you've visited my shop much over time, you might've noticed I have a thing about orange. I love it. It's happy, it's cheery, it looks good on everyone in my family ... I'm all about it. If something we need is avaiable in orange, we get the orange one. It's "our" favorite color. I'm glad my boys are still young enough (6 & 3) to just buy into it when I tell them that "we" love it! As you can imagine, I love autumn when orange and all the beautiful shades of it are available and fit right in to everything! And so I had a smile on my face when I finished posting my latest bracelet - "Cozy Afternoons".

The resin chips in this piece combine pieces of shell and resin for a great dimensional, warm look and I've separated each with a small antiqued copper heishi. As much as I love them, my favorite part about this bracelet is how they highlight the gorgeous shades of orange in the focal, handmade lampworked glass square bead. It's part of a design collection of beads that had not been named yet. When I first saw the design, I went nuts. I love everything about it. The colors in it, the fact that the colors are "dotted" on, they dance and play with each other on the surface, they're warm and comforting ... AND it offers the surprise of a bit of blue in it! I joked with the artist that if she wanted to name the collection, she could call them the "Susan Raber" beads, because they could be like my signature bead. I snatched several up right away, but have been hoarding them in my studio, refusing to let any go! I finally convinced myself to allow myself to have some fun with them, and so I designed this piece around one. And so I'm pleased to share with you, my latest bracelet with a Susan Raber bead in it ... and a lot of happy orange!