Vintage Shamballa Bracelets

While digging through my bead stash last week I came across this jar of shamballa beads that were given to me by my great aunt. After asking my mom and other relatives I've figured out that they are 30 + years old. Neat, right? I love working with vintage materials and sat down to come up with some ideas for these great beads. I've noticed that bracelets made from these beads are a very popular trend right now from celebs like Jay Z to the every day fashionista.

I wanted to make earrings and bracelets using my new found treasure. Next time I will measure the diameter of the hole on the beads I want to use before heading to the craft store to buy materials, oopsy daisy. The holes on these beads are really tiny and I was hoping to find a higher quality of cord than hemp to use. I ended up using some black waxed linen cord that I had in my stash as the stuff I bought and opened was just to big. The earrings I bought were also to big for the beads.

I made 3 bracelets before I ran out of cord. 2 are an adjustable style with a sliding knot in the back the other is a tie on friendship style bracelet. All 3 are made using macrame style square knots.

 

 

 

 

You can check out more of the jewelry I've made either at my Etsy Shop or like us on Facebook. Thanks for taking a look have a great day!