Faux pearl and lampwork beads necklace
Yesterday, I showed you a predominantly blue lampwork bead necklace that had yellow contrast beads. I used the same focal bead set and made another necklace, this time with pink and faux pearl accents.
The point to this lesson is the importance of accent beads. They are like the bass line in a pop song, not really noticed, but essential to the impact of the music.
Spring inspired lampwork bead necklace
Making lampwork beads requires high heat, molten glass and the blessing of the Fates. I’ll never do it. I’m more a buy-em-and-string-em gal.
My preference is to include a few sparkly beads in the design too. With this project I worked out from the focal bead – the largest bead on the string, positioned at the centre of the piece. The contrast colour choice was yellow. I wanted to pick up the yellow in the beads positioned 6 spaces from the focal bead. I think I might have been more successful had I chosen beads in the same pink as the flower in the focal bead.
That’s why a bead board is so useful. You can see how the design works before stringing, making changes without the hassle of taking the necklace apart. My mistake was not purchasing the alternate beads in pink. I had it in my mind from the onset that I was going to use yellow. Yellow is the colour directly across from blue on the colour wheel. It was the obvious choice.
The obvious choice may not be the best choice. If you want a stand out piece that sings – sometimes you have to ignore the colour wheel and go with your gut. I didn’t and I was disappointed.
