For a friend...

This Christmas for the first time, I actually sold some pieces of jewelry to some friends to give as presents to wives and girlfriends. I thought I'd show you a couple of my favorite pieces.
The first is a bracelet/necklace ensemble made with matte and metallic seed and bugle beads.
For whatever reason, I'm really enjoying using bugle beads in my beadwork. I used to find them completely useless, but lately, I've been imagining designs using them and the possibilities seem endless.
The bracelet is made with peyote and the necklace with herringbone. If you use bugle beads, I would advise doubling your thread (if you use Nymo), and with every stitch of a bugle bead, use a seed bead at each end to keep the glass bugle beads from cutting your thread.

The two pieces in the second set are made with just herringbone. The first is a bracelet with the bugle beads again, and the second is a necklace made with little beaded herringbone beads and chain.

The sets look really nice. Elegant enough to be special but very wearable for everyday. What's more, I used every single last teal bugle bead that I had! (which just means I'll have to buy more, dang.)

I'll try to get a picture of my last Christmas presents up for y'all to see. If I don't before Christmas, I hope you have a great one!