Flashback Friday

Today, as I was sat at my desk sniffing my OHM bead box that arrived this week (it's scented... I haven't totally lost the plot) I was contemplating the bracelets I made this time last year.

It's not surprising that they are still on my mind as I've recently received the new Trollbeads Collectors Case and I was quite gobsmacked, usually being a make and break bracelet kind of a woman, to note that nearly all of those bracelets are still made up in a similar form to how I put them together last October!!

My bracelet from last October

I love the colours in this and the combination of beads that I've been wearing it all year round, for a year!! The only change is that I needed Lenny (my main Skelly) for my 1st incarnation of my Spirit in the Sky bracelet so off he came and Snails in Love was substituted as a focal.

I adore Halloween, not for the holiday, but for the fact that often brands come out with Halloween themed beads (as they see them) that I enjoy ALL year round.

I've just had a delivery of quite a few new beads for this year's bracelet, thanks to an abandoned holiday, but I'm not sure I'm ready to break this one up yet... although I do need quite a few beads from it for the new one!

What will you be wearing this October?

Trollbeads ~ Bats are not just for Halloween!

I love when Halloween comes around each year, not because I'm a big fan of Halloween, but because jewellery brands start considering featuring Bats, Skulls and other lovely ideas that I enjoy wearing all year round.

Trollbeads recent Halloween release was no exception, designed by Jenke Gorter, the small release featured a Spooky Bats Lock, a Sleeping Bat charm and Happy Bats earrings which are designed to fit on the Trollbeads earring hooks.

Trollbeads Halloween Collection 2014

I love bats, about 9 years ago my best friend used to live a few streets away from me in an upstairs flat in an old property, he had bats living nearby and at night we used to sit in his living room with all the lights off and watch them fly past - beautiful creatures!

I'd been debating what to get from the new collections and Bats were definitely on my wish list, cue an opportunity to shop in the way I love best, and one Bat lock and one Bat charm made their way from wish list to my house in one fell swoop (or by postman if you insist on being literal).

My first impressions were that both the lock and the charm are very small but beautifully detailed. 

For some reason I'd imagined that the charm would be larger, probably because I'd been thinking of it more as a dangle than a charm, but in my opinion it sits somewhere between the two ideals.  On a bracelet it works well without overpowering the design and it is *very* versatile.

Sleeping Bat Charm

It's a total credit to Jenke's design that I bought the lock new.  Already owing 16 locks (blimey I'd not counted them up for while) I never *need* a lock, so they often get overlooked when I'm prioritising purchases no matter how much I like them.  I make and break bracelets all the time so I *always* have spare locks available and they often get bumped to the bottom of my wish lists - I then normally pick up the ones I like in sales or preloved... long after they've been released.  This is a lock that's worth breaking my own rules for!

Spooky Bats Lock

I wanted to make a bracelet that tips it's hat to Halloween, without being an in your face Halloween design, and, as I've been finding myself making more and more symmetrical designs recently, I wanted it to be cohesive but one that's not an exact mirror image of itself.

When I came to pick out potential beads from my box, I went for greens and oranges with some blacks and realised that I now have a huge amount of beads that could be used, this actually made it more tricky and the bracelet went through a lot of variations before I was totally satisfied with the result.  I wasn't happy with my choices until I started to focus on a 1+1 design; alternating glass and silver beads.

Clockwise from Lock: Spooky Bats Lock, Artisan Safety Chain,
Stopper, Black Spinel Tassel, Aqua Edge Triangle,
World Trollbeads Day Bead, Onyx, Mushrooms Family, Masala Facet,
Chinese Snake, Macrow Stone, Cells, TB unique, Skeleton Spirit,
Masala Facet, Sleeping Bat, Macrow Stone, Ohm Beads -Love Hurts,
Netherlands World Tour Orange, Snake, Onyx,
World Trollbeads Day Bead, Green Prism, Stopper.

Having tweaked it considerably, I now think I might have made another keeper!

What do you think to the Halloween Collection?

Are you Batty for Bats; think they are just for Halloween;

or do you wish they'd fly away?