Happy Lunar New Year!

Although I don’t celebrate Lunar New Year myself, I had fun putting together this stack. Strangely, I don’t think that I’ve ever done a bracelet for Lunar New Year before despite having most of these beads for years!

The oldest bead is the Pandora Hong Bao. I ordered it (all the way from Singapore!) when it was first released in 2012, but have primarily used it in my St. Patrick’s Day bracelets since then. At the time, I only collected Pandora, so it was easier to justify the expense of ordering it from abroad. Although I haven’t kept up with the other Pandora Lunar New Year releases, the Lion Dance bead that Pandora released this year was very tempting. But, not quite tempting enough to order from Asia. However, if it ever appears in Canadian stores, I might have to add it to my collection. ;)

The newest addition is the Ohm Beads Blessed with Wealth bead, which originally came out in 2016 but which I didn’t add to my collection until the end of the year. One bead that I really wish that I had added to my collection is the red and gold Year of the Horse from 2014, but I didn’t think that it would fit into my collection at the time. Ah, hindsight!

Of course, for the glass beads, I had to go with those red/gold colours that are so prominent during the New Year celebrations, with the red and bronze X links to help set them off. I almost borrowed my daughter’s red/gold Trollbeads Root Chakra bead this morning when I spotted it in her jewellery box while I helped her with her earrings, but it felt a little like the bead addicts version of stealing candy from a baby. ;)