Thursday, March 19, 2009

Shopping Opportunities: Chain, chain, chain


I needed some 22 gauge sterling silver wire in a hurry, so I took the opportunity to drop by one of my favorite local bead stores, Chelsea's Beads, while the Short One was at his Mom's Morning Away class earlier this week. While I was looking around, Dawn, who is a huge bead enabler (okay, okay - my bead enabling threshold is pretty low) was showing me some of her recent beautiful creations, including a cute bracelet on stretchy cord with little stone dangles when she paused and asked, "Have you actually seen this chain yet?"

I hadn't, but I was immediately smitten when she showed it to me. There were a few different options there - peridot, amethyst (I think the third choice was amethyst) and iolite, and I ended up bringing a bit of the iolite home with me. This is 4mm faceted iolite wrapped in vermeil.


Chelsea's is well-known for having a copious amount of chain in various metals (they have a ton in different link styles - I believe a decent amount of it is available on-line as well), but I'd never seen anything like this delicate wire-wrapped stone chain before, so I thought I'd share it with you. Now, could you buy the components and wire-wrap something like this yourself? Yes, of course you could. Does it take the charm away from this chain? I don't think so. This is gorgeous, gorgeous stuff, very versatile and, of course, extremely fast and easy to use. The bracelet Dawn showed me was incredibly cute and used just a single ring from this chain (with the stones dangling from it - I think her version was tourmaline) strung simply with small circular beads. (If you want to have a closer look at the chain, click on the one of the above images.) I'm excited to use this, and I can see trying out different stone versions in the future. (By the way, if you, like me, drool after this kind of thing, I believe it is available on-line through the store's website.)

Thanks for visiting!

3 comments:

Summer said...

Wow, what a cool chain:) I think I could make something like this myself, too, but it seems like it would be tedious with such small stones:) Thanks for the shopping op, hehe!

Melissa J. Lee said...

Thanks for your comment, Summer. I was a little worried people would "tsk, tsk" me for promoting this kind of chain, but I really would (and intend to) use it myself.

TesoriTrovati said...

Now that? Is brilliant! I wouldn't "tsk" you Melissa! I don't have but a few hours in the day (and none of them in daylight) to actually make my creations. Whatever can save me time, in cooking or in beading, is alright with me. The link to the site didn't work for me...I will have to try again...I am wondering how affordable something like that can be? That is a lot of work! And Vermeil too! Thanks for sharing! I would love to come down to Chelsea's sometime, slim pickings up here in Central WI...enjoy the day! Erin