My latest commission has been fantastic because I have had lots of freedom to create a theme and produce 3 different pieces for a complete set. I also got to flex my silversmithing muscles as I created a Fantasy style necklace to complete the set that is to be worn with one of my mega charm beads
Ok so the brief was to create a set of charm beads to wear to a wedding in Las Vegas!! There needed to be plenty of bling, which meant I could use lots of inclusions in my glass like fine silver droplets, fine silver foil, cubic zirconias and I could use lots of glass because she wanted the charm bracelet bit to literally be dripping off her arm; but the colour of the dress my client was wearing is VERY subtle a kind of almost pink but not too 'rosy'. A bit 'champagne' but not too yellow....
So the beads that I made could not argue with the dress at all and the colour palette had to remain really subtle otherwise the jewellery would completely overpower the dress!
Here is the dress and a close up of the fabric. You can see that what ever jewellery is worn with it has to work with the colours of the fabric itself and the colours of the shadows that naturally fall as the dress is in two layers. The holes are quite defined on the bare skin part of the dress as well which means that my client's skin tone will also alter the look of the colour too.
(My client has a good tan at the moment which means there is a more caramel look to those parts of the dress which needed to be taken into account).
This was the colour palette that we chose at the start of the project. Later on, we warmed it up with a bit of amber and caramel added in...
Here are the beads one by one with a bit of detail about each of them:
I bought in these Swarovski bricolette charm beads to complement the set. They bring an extra bit of sparkle to the bracelet...
Here is the finished bracelet shown from different angles. I took these pics in sunlight to catch all the sparkle I could! The bracelet is shown complete with a number of specially chosen Trollbeads and Redbalifrog silvers to finish it off to a tee...
And here are the earrings and mega charm pendant bead shown on a classic necklace and on the new Fantasy style necklace that I made.
We went very simple with the earrings. I chose some simple Swarovski Crystal beads and made them into earrings using sterling silver earwires.
This bead is over 20 mm in diameter. It's got lots of colours and spirals going all the way round.
I delicately put the necklace together using 100cm of sterling silver chain. I soldered the important parts that needed strength, then oxidised the entire piece and polished it back. I love the result! I can make more of them if required at a fraction of the price of what the big guys charge...
That's all for now. Thank you for taking the time to browse my blog... x
