Organic wrap bracelet (Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge)

Beacause of the time of year, I've not been good at keeping up with the Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge every week. I still have a WIP from the colour palette week, never got far with the redo assignment and the ancient inspiration week never got beyond a few sketches and a favourite civilization. But this week, I felt it was about time to actually start doing something, regardless of potato work. I ended up with a very simple piece, but on the other hand I like simple jewellery -- and it felt like the right style for the brand I chose.

The assignment of the week was to "Create a piece of jewelry inspired by your favorite clothing catalog or online store". Well, I'm not sure I have a favourite. What little money I have, I spend on beads and not clothes. The clothes I shop are mostly affordable basics like tops and cardies. But even if my interest in fashion is lukewarm to say the least, I do have taste preferences and ever since encounting mori kei, I've got a bit of interest in clothes back. Fashion is boring, personal style is fun. So it's finding interesting styles and gets me interested in clothes. Something that's easy to see if looking at my Hair & clothes pinboard (yeah... hair's another thing I'm not much into, mostly because I suck at making nice updos and don't like to spend time curling, straightening, drying etc).

Anyway, for this assignment, I went to my pinboard and started looking through it. What to choose? One of the lagenlook/romantic country inspired brands (Östebro, Aurea Vita, Ewa i Walla, Rundholz, Ivey Abitz etc) as they're so earthy and poetic? Artka for colourful, "ethnic" (yeah, don't like that word but as it's useful...) inspiration? No, in the end I went with a brand that makes nice, simple clothes for every day: Braintree, a brand of organic, ethical clothing.

I wanted to do something that matches summer outfits like this -- and of cause something that'd follow the same ethics as the brand. It had to be organic. Now, I'm embarrassed to say I don't have that much organic stringing materials (not to mention organic floss: do you know how hard it is to find organic or fairtrade cotton embroidery thread??), but I did find a ball of cotton yarn from Marks & Kattens (M&K Eco) which I felt was a good fit for the clothes.

It would've been pretty to finish the simple wrap bracelet off with a shiny metal charm, but I wanted to stick with the theme and go for something more green. Much metal is recycled today, but it wasn't enough for this design. So I went with an old wooden lentil bead. Wood is of cause only green if the forestry is responsible. Still, green enough for this design.

After making the first bracelet, I also made a second using a laser cut birch wood pendant I've had lying around for ages. Thought the motif suited the ideas behind the design.

The design can perhaps be a tad dull, but I'm seeing them as stackable bracelets to be combines with others -- and I had to make due with what I had at home. You take what you have.

Because the bracelets wrap three times around the wrist, they're also a suitable size for a necklace if one wishes to use it that way instead. Perhaps adding charms or pendants according to whatever fits the outfit of the day. One could of cause do that when wearing them like bracelets too if it feels too plain like this.