Rock-n-Roll Loom Bracelet

There is so much joy and amazement once a piece is finished, however, no one ever really sees the difficulties and failures when attempting to create a piece.  Most time designers keep their mistakes hidden, for me, I am simply so glad to complete a piece that has caused me difficulty, that I quickly forget about the mishaps....this time is different.

I decided that I wanted to loom a bracelet and this is only my second loom project, but my first loom project alone.  A few months back I took a beading class with Erin Simonetti and blogged about that awesome experience here. Afterwards, I simply went back to off loom beading, but I felt a twinge of guilt as my loom started to collect its third layer of dust :-(.

So I gathered all my courage and a dust rag and broke out my loom.  I had some awesome beads that I wanted to use so I grabbed them and started to bead...

Looks fine right?

Well when I confronted my loom the next night I noticed a bit o disaster on my loom....

 Notice the buckling pearls, I just could not work out a systematic way to add these pearls AND I could not back out of the thread path regardless of how hard I tried. What to do?

At first I thought crush and destroy this loom and stick with the comforts of off looming beading 

However, while this experience is negative, I love that I was able to turn it into something positive.  I scrapped this idea and warped (threaded) my loom yet again.  With a bit of perseverance I mentally designed the beginning of another piece...

I loved the colors that I was working with, so I kept those and began a gradient pattern

I didn't want a flat bracelet so I started adding jet black chips

I consulted my group Bead Loom and was motivated to continue to finish one side with chips.  Many also suggested adding something to the opposite side to give the bracelet balance....

I had some silver faceted glass gems sitting around so I added these to the opposite side, along with some red delicas to give the bracelet some pop

I even found a way to incorporate the saucer bead from my original design and I made it part of my loop and button closure

The bracelet is quite big for my wrist but I still love the outcome and will be listing this for sale in my Etsy shop within the next couple of days.

Moral to this story, turn tragedy into triumph and don't give up. Make your mistakes work for you because ultimately, every design has some success in it, even if it is just a color palate or maybe a shape, something can be salvaged from every disaster.  And normally, if you just "keep swimming" you reach your destination and how much more enjoyable is the outcome after experiencing and enduring a bit of tribulation.