Day of the Dead(head)

I’ve been trying for years to create a more colourful Halloween bracelet, but always end up falling back into using just a few colours. This year was no exception.

My two main goals for this year’s Halloween bracelet were to use the Ohm Beads Deadhead and the gorgeous Trollbeads Spooky Bats lock. I won Deadhead last December from Generous Gems and, although I didn’t want to wait until Halloween to use it, I couldn’t get it to fit into any other themes this year. Still, it has gotten lots of use this past month to make up for it!

The first attempt at a Halloween bracelet was the aforementioned “colourful” bracelet that combined both Deadhead and the lock. But, no matter what arrangement I tried, it just didn’t have that Halloween vibe that I wanted. I only wore it for a few days before breaking it apart. I figured that I needed more Halloween silvers (and definitely need more oranges!) to make this kind of combination work, so I set out to try a few other ideas.

Still wanting to highlight both Deadhead and the Spooky Bats lock, I pared back the colours, split it into two combinations, and started to like what I saw. The two oranges, although still not perfect matches, work much better together when there aren’t as many other competing colours. To set off the bat lock, I went with a bit of a vampire theme and picked out blacks and reds. I added more blacks to the bangle combination and thought that I was done!

A few days later I needed the reds for another combination, so I switched them out for the greens. A day after that I added my guilty purchase for the month: the Queenberry beads ghost. After splurging on Thomas Sabo in August and September, October was meant to be my bead-free month. But, near the end of the month I realized that the little trick-or-treating ghost had been my list for two years and so I decided to get him since he really wasn’t expensive. I was a bit hesitant to order him as I usually like to see live images rather than ordering from stock images, but the detail and finishing on him is great.

That combination that I mentioned I needed the reds for? That was my Halloween costume. I picked up the squid hat a few weeks ago and wore it (and a pair of red longjohns) to a costume party on the weekend. And what costume would be complete without a matching bracelet?!? I picked the redbalifrog Fern Leaf and Ohm Beads Bacon because they reminded me of tentacles and added my eye bead in because of the hat’s buggy eyes.

My final combo for the month came together on the last day. I would have liked to get it done sooner, but I had to wait for my drill bit to arrive! I finally found a drill bit that was the right size for the Thomas Sabo, but could only find it online. It arrived on the 31st and I drilled these four (plus one more) before the battery ran low. I also hoped to drill a few obsidian, but it seems to be a harder stone so I think that it might take a few passes to get through.

6 Comments

  1. For this holiday season I wish that people that are I’ll would feel better, people that are lonely would have company, and those that are hungry get food and feel full.

  2. I absolutely love the way you used tons of saturated colors to make up various Halloween designs. There isn’t one combo I don’t like although I must admit I would never have though to mix purple and orange for Halloween and absolutely love the way your combo came out. Loving the silver eyeball-could you tell me where I could find it. Sigh never ending bead wishlists ( bring on the thanksgiving beads now…)

    1. Thanks Alex! I definitely don’t seem to shy away from strong colours when putting together Halloween combos :D Although, I have just finally posted this years Halloween combos and, once again, they feature only a few colours. I guess it’s a bit of a situation where you find what works for you and what makes you happy, right?

      The eyeball is one that I made myself. I made it using metal clay, which is tiny particles of silver (fine silver, in my case, but you can also get sterling silver) mixed with clay. You mold it into whatever shape you want, fire it to burn away the clay and bond the metal, and you’re left with a solid metal bead :)

    1. Well, I haven’t really been making them to sell them, but I will keep that in mind if I do :D. I also just found out that my usual supplier for the metal clay is out of stock and doesn’t seem to be getting any more anytime soon, so now I’m trying to find a new supplier where the shipping wont be crazy. I seem to have a bit of bad luck with finding it here. I think that this is the third time that I’ve had to find someone new :/

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