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.
Image by simone-walsh via Flickr
I’m a magpie, attracted to anything that sparkles, such as jewellery or personalities, life’s bling. So when the opportunity arose to teach jewellery making to people as obsessed with sparkle as I, I grabbed it.
This month, September, I will teach 4 classes in the fundamentals of beading. To promote the classes, in August, I spent a few hours demonstrating jewellery making techniques, sharing the joy of sparkle.
A wedding attire crisis introduced me to a potential student, who had spent the day searching for the perfect pair of earrings for the dress she planned to wear to a wedding the next day.
In desperation, she visited the craft store, wondering if she might find the solution to her color crisis. She saw me with the tool kit out, building a bracelet, and asked, “Do you think you could put together a pair of earrings in the next few minutes?”
Putting together the earrings was the easy part – darn easy. The time-consumer, I replied, looking at my watch, is designing the earrings – choosing the beads and findings. I didn’t mention that – technically – I wasn’t supposed to build earrings for customers.
We had 45 minutes to pick the material and put the earrings together. I’ve never made a material choice in under 60 minutes. More importantly, I had never collaborated with anyone on the choice. The pressure mounted.
She was determined. Certain of her choice of colour, she had eliminated about 85% of the stock available. The 15% that remained had challenges of its own. Size, degree of sparkle, cut, gold or silver mounts – the length of the earrings – lever back or hook. All decisions to be made. We had 30 minutes left.
I couldn’t begin the construction, until she returned with the receipt proving she had paid for the supplies. I prayed the queue at the till wasn’t too long. We had 20 minutes left, when she presented me with the receipt.
I laid the beads out on the board, for her approval. She saw that I had a few bits and pieces in my tool kit. The sparkly bits excited her – can we add a silver ball? We could but I knew that the ball would make the construction more difficult. Rather than tell her, I built the first earring exactly as she asked. Sometimes seeing is easier to understand than a verbal explanation.
The problem arose. There is an element of physics involved in jewellery making. Physics caused the problem. We had 15 minutes left. Had she not chosen beads with a front and back, the problem would have not been obvious. She loved the design, but agreed the construction was not working. After several unsuccessful attempts to defy the laws of physics, she agreed to forgo the problematic design element. The earring hung perfectly and looked fabulous. Five minutes remained to put together the second earring.
I finished with a minute to spare. She had a pair of earrings and I had a new student. I’m looking forward to teaching her the techniques. She’ll never spend a day searching for the perfect earrings again!
