Ready for Valentine's Day

On Tuesday 1/3, I wrote about some new ceramic hearts and plans to create something for Valentine's Day this year (for a change!). Well, here's the finished product ... a warm, earthy and sweet ceramic bracelet! I really like how this piece looks soft, while being chunky and earthy at the same time. I put together this mix of Kazuri beads (I mentioned previously this week that I needed a Kazuri fix - so here they make another appearance!) and I love the qualities each bead color offers. The pinks are a soft, muted shade of almost muddy pink. The ivory rounds have earthy dots that give it an "oatmeal" appearance ... so cool to be crisp & clean ivory, but in an earthy way! One set of brown rounds are smooth and almost matte - reminding you of the surface of a Milk Dud ... but finished with a softly shimmery coating. The last set of rounds are a brown metallic, which were just the right touch to throw in the mix. In my eye, the repeated shape of the rounds ties them to the others, but the metallic finish brings a pop and differentiates. Opposite the heart, I used an egg-shaped Bulgarian ceramic bead that is a perfect, gorgeous brown background with the cutest white polka dots across the surface. I felt like this piece not only balanced the heart across the circle of the bracelet, but also provided another element of "cute" and "sweet" to the design, to support the heart. A few dots of silver and a Tierracast lock & key toggle clasp to insinuate the "key to your heart", were perfect to finish the design. And of course, a little dainty silver heart charm, for a special little "extra". I make most of my bracelets in the 7-8" size range. But when I aligned this design and was satisfied with it, it measured a little smaller than usual. I went ahead and left it at a 6.75" fit, because I do have people with smaller wrist sizes inquire about shortening some of my pieces. So hopefully, this will find its way to someone who will enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed creating it!