I came home last night sure I was going to straight away begin beading triangles, but somehow pentagons have begun appearing from my fingers.

I wanted to make something with a spiral, or stripe, going all the way around and as I contemplated it I realised that actually the pentagon shape may work better for this.

So first thing this morning I set to experimenting and playing around with colours, size and shape.

The pentagon shape is one I don't bead so often as a triangle so I am not as familiar with all its possiblities as I feel with them. This means I have to put quite a few hours in today to get the result that I want.

I began with a sample using cream beads and 5 other colours to see if the idea I had would work and once I was satisfied it did (about 5 hours and lots of beading, unbeading and cutting up later) I began to think about what colours I wanted to make the final piece in.

Last week I took this triangular piece away with me thinking I might get some time to work on it. Of course I didn't, but its colours are still in my mind. Along with the blues and greens I need a 'neutral' which will divide the colours and serve to unite any other pieces I make. Having used cream in my sample I know I don't want to use this, it seems too 'bright' for my tastes. Although my triangular piece uses black I don't want to use it for this piece mainly because I know it can cause problems in photos and printing. As this project will be featured in a magazine I want to avoid black but maybe I will bead myself a version using it in the future.

So I began to look through my beads to see what else to use. I have previously used grey as a neutral, in my Freeform Cuffs, which worked really well but my mind seems to be thinking metallic. I am tempted to use my gorgeous new copper beads but my mind is looking for shiny.

I decide on gold but can only find a tube with about 7 beads in which isn't good for anything. Further searching finds me drooling over some lovely bronze Delicas (number 22) and I know they're the one for me.

Then it's just a simple matter of choosing blues and getting to work on a piece.

It soon becomes apparent that as the night is drawing in, the blues are getting harder and harder to tell apart. I can see them well enough to bead, but am losing faith that they will show as different in the finished piece. So I pick out 5 new colours (blues and green) and get to work on a new piece.

As I bead I know that I will make at least 2 of these bangles but seeing as odd numbers look better then maybe 3 would be best...