Poetry in Shades

The length of Shades is 42 inches from the center of the button to the end of the button loop. It will wrap six times around a 6-1/2 inch wrist. If you’re making Shades as a gift and you have to guesstimate the wrist size of the recipient, here is a general size chart for wrists/bracelet sizes:

Petite: 6 to 7”

Medium: 7-1/4 to 8”

Large: 8 to 8-1/2”

Plus: 8-3/4 to 9-1/4”

The pattern is simple, yet very effective: It begins with 2 pearls, 1 glass bead, 2 pearls, 1 glass bead and ends with 1 pearl. Robin did 6 macramé stitches between each bead and had beads left over. You can modify the pattern, place the beads randomly and even vary the number of stitches between beads. The beauty of this design is that when it wraps around your wrist, it all looks intentional, so there’s no such thing as a mistake! And, if you wear it as a necklace, it’s going to look like a million dollars!

Review the Poetry Handout for directions on making a Poetry Design. The handout shows the instructions for Poetry knotted with Tuff Cord #1. Shades is done on Micro C-Lon, but the process and steps are the same. Once you get the hang of it, you can adapt this design to virtually any assortment of beads and buttons. When we wrote the Poetry Handout, we recommended using a Thread Burner to cauterize the thread ends. We don’t feel this is still necessary: If you use glue appropriately and cut your excess cord away carefully, your project will be secure.

We hope you enjoy. Please send us pics of what you do and as always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate contacting us. That’s what we’re here for! Just email us at info.beadshop@gmail.com.

Happy beading!