A recent find while cleaning out my garage resulted in my creating six dazzling adjustable beaded belts. Or, are they only belts? Could they be statement necklaces? Beautiful hangings for indoor or outdoor use? Opulent tie-backs for draperies? Or . . . ? You decide!
Long ago, I ordered some large puffed acrylic beads in round and scalloped oval shapes, thinking they would be beautiful components for my SteedBeads rhythm beads (jingling necklaces for horses). They came in six different colors, so I ordered some of each. However, when they arrived, I realized the beads’ hole size was too small to fit on the cord I use for my rhythm beads. So they wound up in a shoebox in our garage.
Last spring, while conducting a long-overdue cleanout of our garage, I discovered the beads and couldn’t decide what to do with them. They were too pretty to throw out, likely difficult to resell, and in need of a new owner.
This fall, they were still in the “to be disposed of somehow” pile, when our church was seeking donations of craft items for the church’s booth at the October 5th Lamoille Nevada Harvest Festival. The church planned to donate to local worthy causes any proceeds from that booth’s sales. I recognized this as an opportunity to turn these lovely beads into donations for the church’s booth.
After digging through my inventory of possible components to combine with the beads, I decided to make them into beaded belts. I added embossed silver- or gold-tone acrylic spacer beads (from my SteedBeads bead supply), angel pendants (from my prayer bead components), and cord and large silver- or gold-plated swivel lobster clasps (from my jewelry components), and voilà! They became dazzling adjustable beaded belts in six different color combos!
At least, that was my original intent. Once I completed my impromptu creations, I started imagining them being used as more than just belts. The purposes I suggested at the beginning of this post were just a few I came up with.
To make the belts adjustable to fit a wide variety of waist sizes, I deliberately made them extra long (about 55 inches). Although I super glued the knots at their pendant ends, I deliberately left a long tail on the knots on the clasp ends. The hang tags have instructions for shortening the length, if desired, by untying the knot on the clasp end, removing the desired number of beads, retying the cord to the clasp, and trimming off the excess cord. Adding super glue to that knot will make it more secure, but is not required.
I put these instructions on the hang tags, priced them at $20.00 each, hung them from a coat hanger for display, and dropped them off at the church’s Festival booth, hoping they would sell.
Imagine my surprise, when a lady stopped by my own booth at the Festival to thank me for making such beautiful belts. She had just purchased THREE of them!
Unfortunately, the other three didn’t sell at the Festival, so they are now available on my website. Click here to make one or more of them yours today! And start imagining their possibilities . . . .
