Good Luck Bunco Bracelet

Bunco is one of those things that was unknown one minute and was EVERYWHERE the next minute, sort of like salted caramel or the Kardashians. 

During the six years that bracketed the new millennium I worked for an extremely wealthy couple as a personal assistant. Whenever they entertained, Mrs. Riche would spend weeks shopping for decorations, linens & party favors. She was the first person to mention a Bunco party to me, and I thought she was confessing to some sort of illegal activity. Her Bunco group must have been the happiest group of women in the history of the game; her idea of a party favor was most people's idea of a very nice holiday gift. 

I have remained friends with Misty, a co-worker from my tenure with the Riches. Misty recently invited me to join her Bunco group. The game is very easy to learn and completely based on luck. Only the person keeping score needs to pay close attention to game play so it is perfect for socializing. My group meets once a month. Dinner is served first, we play two rounds, have dessert, play two more rounds and then distribute prizes so the evening is full of opportunities to chat and get to know each other. 

The group of women that I play with is so wonderful and welcoming that I wanted to make each of them a quilted Bunco-related fabric clutch bag. I searched online for Bunco fabric and came up with zilch. Then I searched for fabric printed with dice. Again, no luck--the results were all Vegas-themed with roulette wheels and decks of cards as well as dice. 

My search did turn up small dice beads, though, which lead to this design:

 

Bunco is played with three dice so the Good Luck Bunco Bracelet has three dice in the center portion of the design. The dice beads are three-dimensional with the stringing direction through the diagonal dimension of the bead. The bead mix that I purchased included black, white & red dice beads. I used all three colors in this design. The border is stitched with seed beads and bicone crystals to add some shine.  

This design is called the Good Luck Bunco Bracelet. The first time that I wore it, I ‘won’ the consolation prize for the most lost games in the evening. So, is that good luck?

Cleo

This is a piece that I just finished last week. It is made with square glass two-hole tile beads called 'czechmates'. The gold beads are black on the other side, so the necklace is reversable.

This photo shows the many threads that still need to be woven back into the piece. It would probably make more sense to weave them in as I go along, but I just can't stop beading when I really get going. I wait until the very last step to weave & trim the fuzzies.

The final necklace will have a chain attached with a clasp in the back. I originally was going for an Art Deco feeling but I think the finished product looks more Egyptian, so I am calling this Cleo. I want to make a jagged-edge cuff to go with this.

As much as I love the tile beads I cannot for the life of me figure out nice earring designs to go with the necklaces that I've made. These beads are not lightweight, so any earring that I make from them has to use only a few beads or they will be too heavy. I also tend to think that, with a really bold statement necklace, you don't need attention-getting earrings (but maybe I am just rationalizing to cover up my lack of good earring ideas).

I have an idea to design & make a wall hanging out of these beads. It would be like making a stitched mosaic. Again, however, it will end up being a very heavy piece. The thread that I use is a form of fishing line, so I suspect that it would hold up well, but the wall might not.