Trollbeads on holiday

I had been pondering over what to take away with me when I went on holiday, this was my first trip abroad since collecting trollbeads and whilst I've carted my beads all over the UK, I was a bit more reticent to haul my collection on holiday with me.

I'd read some good tips from other trollies and bloggers who offered that they took a few ready made combinations for convenience, rather than make up bracelets whilst away, which made a lot of sense to me.

 

I had a number of worries about taking several bracelets away with me, mostly about the value of them, and whether or not I had somewhere safe to keep them when they weren't being worn.  I never wear jewellery during the day on holiday so I needed somewhere secure to store them, and in basic accommodation you're never 100% sure you'll have access to a room safety deposit box no matter what the holiday brochure says.

I also worried about simple loss or damage (insect repellent spray, being less careful when out and about) particularly regarding non-production beads or limited edition/retired beads.  Maybe, I'm just too anxious about my beads!

I decided to make up 1 bracelet which I would wear whist I was travelling, that would go with all the clothes I was taking, and to just hope that we had access to a safety deposit box at the apartment!

Easier said than done; as I hadn't actually decided on what outfits I was taking...

I decided to finish a bracelet that I'd already started, I added my 2 new silvers to the combination to make a purple, green and blue combination - and throw caution to the wind with non-production beads and limited editions (given it had several OOAKs and Baby's breath included).

Clockwise from Flower Lock: stopper, purple wave, cool dusk, OOAK budded python, whitecap,
purple armadillo, the hare and the tortoise, midnight flowers, baby's breath, flowers on indigo, happy fish,
forest flowers, forget-me-not, purple stripe, lake eye, OOAK, OOAK, purple prism

It felt like a holiday combo as it has fish, flowers, animals, whitecap and cool dusk to name a few.  Although I wouldn't want to meet a budded python ;)  I really like this one for the colours and I'm still getting over using my 3 flower glass beads as I keep saying I'm not as keen on them but I think they work really well in this combination.

Then I remembered my comments from my last holiday beads discussion that it was a shame I didn't have any pinks as I have a few pink items in my wardrobe that could have done with a pop of pink on my bracelet... given that I'd just received some pink beads I decided to see what could be done.

I choose the 4 I thought would work best, and then it was just a case of deciding where they went... I have to say that 21 beads on a 17cm bracelet is a very FULL bracelet.  I only had room to squeeze one stopper on and sometimes doing it up was a challenge, but it worked with 4 pinks and I especially wasn't going to go without a stopper or safety chain on holiday!

The combination worked really well with all my outfits, the only time I had to change it (to remove the pinks) was when I wore a skirt I'd picked up in the sales in Monsoon at the airport branch... the pinks were just too much for the dark grey with orange embroidery!

For those wondering, thankfully we did have a safety deposit box in the room!