Fresh from the desk: Multicolored summer anklet

For my first custom order outside of my circle of family and friends, I was asked to make a fun multicolored anklet out of whatever extra beads I had.  I suggested a few that I had used on my bookmarks, just to get an idea of what she wanted, and she liked these lentil-shaped glass beads with swirls of orange/red, yellow, and blue on a slightly purple-ish base.  There's some foil worked in there too, so these beads are really quite fun to look at, though the picture doesn't do them justice.

True to what she asked for, I used other beads I had lying around.  I have a couple packages of bead mixtures in blues and blues/purples, so those are perfect for projects like this.  I accented the blues/purples with red and yellow seed beads, both colors present in the focal beads, just to liven it up a bit.  The order of beads is cautiously random, without having too many of one color or size close together and making sure to flank the bugle beads and others with sharp-ish edges with large rounded beads to make sure they don't scratch the wearer.  I learned about that the hard way, which was sad because I really liked that necklace I had made.  Maybe I'll just have to try again on that one.

II think I may make more anklets and bracelets like this, with some Millefiori beads and others like these.  It's easy to find those in clearance racks and they're always quite fun, so maybe that'll bump up my impulse purchases.  Today I'll call her to pick it up, so we'll see how she likes it!