My friend Angela has been teaching me to make beaded bracelets. The beads are sewn/woven in-between two pieces of leather cording so the bracelet looks like a ladder of beads that coils around your wrist. Angela has great style and it was her idea to string 4 different kinds of beads so it looks like 4 different bracelets stacked together. She saw this type of bracelet on a website and asked her mom to send her the supplies. She learned how to do it by watching a YouTube video. Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s even more amazing when you find out that the originals sell for $250-300 dollars.
ETA: close up of the “ladder.” The beads are blues, browns and purple.
I finished up mine today and made a tiny bracelet for Camille. She’s showing it off.
Next we ran over to the framer’s to pick up our Omani people shadowboxes. Almost all the wall space in his tiny shop is covered with framed pictures of the Sultan.
Today he had a new piece that was framed and waiting to be picked up. It’s the Sultan embroidered with silver (yes, actual silver) on leather. It’s the same kind of handwork that they do on the khajars (the traditional Omani knives).
Look at the silver work close up. It must have taken forever to do that many stitches. And what happens if you get a knot in your silver?
I had my “goats in the wadi” piece framed and this one that I call “Camille with camel.” The purple matting brings out all the purple in her dress and in the camel blanket. It’s going to hang in her room.
Finally I got home and we went to lunch (me, Josh and Camille). Gotta do it while we can since who knows what Josh’s schedule will be like once he goes back to working regular hours. And yes, it’s as hot as it looks. We’re only about 25 yards from our house and her face is already red.
On the way home, waiting in the shade for daddy to finish talking to some friends.