Viking Inspired Bracelet

Last summer I was shopping around over on BluMudd and came across this cool bracelet bar. It jumped out at me, probably because it has such wonderful Viking tones to the pattern. Yep, total love for this one.

It sat on the bead table for quite a few months simply because I was hording it. But this piece is just too cool to not put it to work. 

I did want to create a somewhat rustic looking beaded bracelet, albeit it isn't in brown tones. But who says the Vikings didn't sometimes wear green? The stitch is a square stitch. A sturdy stitch and one you could image used in Medieval times. I wanted to create a belt buckle look to the bracelet, and a little twisting to the edges to create a braided look. The closure wraps around to button in the back with braided hemp finishing with a hammered copper button.

Ok, and now for the fun part. I went looking for some antiquity eye candy and discovered a great blog called Viking Metal. It's written by a woman in the UK who is doing post doctoral research on .... yep, the Vikings. She had a piece posted that probably would have been used at the end of a waist belt to keep the ends from fraying. The time period is likely the late 9th or early 10th century. It is a standard interlace pattern of the time, and reminded me of the bracelet bar from BluMudd.