April 13, 2012

What was I thinking?

Color often catches my eye and Pinterest (see sidebar) has been showing me a lot of color these days.  I saw a photo of these teeny rubber O-Rings in lime green and had to go look at the source. They are round.  They have holes. Beads are round and have holes.  Interesting!

In the back of my mind I could see using them in bead crochet.  I've done quite a few pieces with fat stone heshi beads. They crochet up beautifully and sort of look like miniature stone walls. I thought the soft rubber feel might make an interesting bracelet.





(thinking this would work well
as a strung, stretchy bracelet)

So I bought a few colors.  Compared to seed beads, and even natural stone beads of a similar size, I thought they were a bit pricey.  Those are 300 pc. baggies at $12 ea. + shipping.  It took about 450 pcs. to string 32" of them. A normal 6-around, 7" bracelet needs 40" of strung beads.


I strung a simple pattern.... or rather I struggled to string a simple pattern.  Guess what?  Rubber just does not string like glass.  They don't tip up nicely onto a needle.  They catch and have to be pushed down the needle and thread.  They don't slide for beans.


I almost quit here and made one earring out of it!

I can crochet most anything..... how hard could this be?  Well... push... pull... nothing moves smoothly.  Even tension - forget it.  

Interesting - those little rings don't look anything like the stones.  They all lay down, sort of like scales or a faux chain maille.  


 A pattern doesn't come out with any precision either.  Color blocking would be more suitable.




 The rope feels nice, I love the colors, it's quite light weight, but crazy frustrating to crochet.  I think I'll finish what I have strung and hope it's long enough to make a bracelet.  After that I will relegate rubber o-rings to the same category as 22/0 seed beads:  crocheted with them once, but don't think I'll do it again.



7 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:13 PM

    They sure are pretty, but I feel your pain.

    Bonus points for trying, though!

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  2. Anonymous10:17 PM

    Judith, you surely do get an A for effort! All that stringing and counting for what? I agree with you tho' - finish up the strung beads and wear, at least once. You've got a pricey item there! Jeanne

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  3. That long section looks very interesting, but I can certainly imagine the difficulties with rubber. I wonder what it would be like to wear - will it catch on things?

    Good on you for giving it a go.

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  4. I love the look of them! I'm going to give it a try, too. Where'd you get the colored o-rings?

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  5. Oooooh...but it is so pretty! What lovely texture and gorgeous color!

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  6. All are pretty with good colors

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