Cobriana Armband and shop news

Frosted black 11/o  triangles, and 15/o glossy black seed beads in herringbone, with glinting silver-lined 11/o garnet seed beads between the stitches. I reinforced the center two lines of beads with more thread, pulling tighter as I went, and it created a slightly undulating effect in the bracelet. I was going for something dark and sexy, with plenty of textural interest to balance the relatively simple design, and I'm very, very happy with the result.

I had stitched a magnetic clasp right into the band, realizing that reinforcing the thread had shortened the bracelet to a bit too short to accomodate my 7" wrist in comfort. Bypassing the pesky process of adding several rows to make it long enough, I thought to simply add another magnetic clasp: I made a simple bead link with a metal barrel bead, wired each end to half a new magnetic clasp, covered the joins with linked jumprings, and matched the new halves of the clasp to the existing magnetic clasp ends on the bracelet. Instant 1-inch extender!

I just love the textural interest of the frosted vs. shiny vs. red beads, plus the pointed/flat sides of the triangle beads. The title and indeed, the whole bracelet, is inspired by the garnet-eyed prince of a kingdom of shapeshifters. His name is Zane Cobriana, and his second form is a royal cobra.
--Zane Cobriana and story material comes from the beautiful novel 'Hawksong' by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. No copyright infringement intended, I just want to talk about what inspired me.

In shop news, I'm thrilled to finally have another  Keys to Secret Cities bracelet listed.

After a long time of trying to design my own version of the amazing emerald earrings Angelina Jolie wore at the 2009 Oscars, I came up with a simple shimmerstone version several months ago, listed them--and sold them within a few weeks. A couple days ago, I discovered I had the materials to make a second pair, so I did, listed them yesterday--and sold them this morning! I only have supplies to make a couple more pairs.

Lastly, I've got some stuff up my sleeve, doing some advance designs appropriate for Valentine's Day. Stay tuned...