A wee bit o’ gold

A disappointing start to my St. Patrick’s Day combination turned out to be the the catalyst for an idea that I love!

My disappointment: missing out on the Ohm Bead of the Month for March, Lucky Moves. I really wanted to buy it the day that it was announced, but the price tag made me pause. The Canadian dollar is a bit in the tank right now, so it would have cost me $165 to buy from the US. My only chance of getting it was from one of the overseas stores that have free shipping and it was still $140. So, I hemmed and hawed for the day.

By the next morning it had sold out. I was out of luck.

It was still available from some US shops, but since I couldn’t easily justify buying it at $140, at $165 it was out of the question, particularly after buying Love Cage in February and making more than a few trips to my local Trollbeads dealer in December and January. I resigned myself to finding something else to design my St. Patrick’s Day bracelet around.

I quickly realized that it’s hard to create a St. Patrick’s Day bracelet that doesn’t include green, gold, or leprechauns! Last year’s combination included my three gnome beads to represent leprechauns, while the previous year’s touched on the leprechauns but also had a nod to Irish stout beers. As I got ready for bed that night, I mentally flipped through the beads in my bead box to see what kind of spin I could add this year. I started thinking about some of my newer beads, since they haven’t been featured in many combinations yet, and remembered that I bought a Black Gold on one of my January trips. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but it was deeply on sale and had a nice pattern to it, so I bought it without a particular theme in mind. My black beads get quite a bit of use, so I figured that I could fit a black and gold one into a theme at some point.

With that as my starting point, I began to form an idea for a bracelet based on the idea of a leprechaun’s gold, hidden in a dark crevice deep in the woods, with the beads getting lighter as you moved away from the centre and closer to the edges of the forest and the light. I knew that I could use my German Clover and Fern Leaf and, of course, I needed a stand-in for the leprechaun and at least one other silver.

The next morning I started with the glass beads and they came together surprisingly quickly. I even managed to use the Ohm Amazon and Do You that I received for Valentine’s Day. I swapped a few beads around to get it balanced, then it was on to the silvers. I considered using the Ohm Mr. Gnome for the leprechaun, but the expression on the Garden Gnome seemed shiftier and fit the traditional view of a leprechaun being a trickster. The final silver was a bit harder to pick. I considered Lucky Knot, Chinese Auspicious, and even my Compass bead (so the leprechaun could find his way back to his treasure!) before finally going with the Hong Bao to represent the leprechaun’s bag that he carries his gold in.

As I predicted, it’s green, gold, and leprechauns! But, I did add a few new beads to the ones that have appeared in previous St. Patrick’s Day combinations, so it doesn’t feel like a repeat. And, I really like how the progression of shades and colours from the centre to the edges turned out.

Artisans: Black/gold swirl: artisan unknown