Cubed Hearts

Well, Christmas is over and we're in the home stretch for the new year. While I was dragging out the Christmas decorations I found my muse. She was napping 'midst the glitter and glow. Suddenly the thought of unakite hearts started swirling 'round in my brain. Hearts? How do you make a heart of cubes, and how is unakite connected to hearts? So I grabbed one of my semi-precious gem references and looked up the properties of unakite. "is said to bring unconditional love of humanity, connection and reunion, and can help with healing of abandonment and separation issues". OK so unakite hearts it will be! It took a while but here's what I came up with.

I finally settled on the beautiful bronze iris seed beads I'd bought way back when I first started beading. They worked up perfectly.

Then I got out my red glass cubes and gold size 11 seed beads to make another pair. The seed beads wouldn't work around the glass cubes although they were also 4mm. I carefully measured both kinds of cubes and sure enough the unakite are just a hair over 4mm. So I went rummaging through old forgotten seed beads and found some size 12 gold beads that I'd bought at the same time I bought the bronze iris. They fit nicely around the glass cubes. I added a dangle of 3mm swarovski bicones and 4mm fire polished rounds.

Now I'm off to see if I can work up the RAW sculptured heart bracelet that I've designed.

Happy New Year!