Inspiration for the necklace
So sometimes you have an itch that you just have to scratch For me recently, I just had to make a beaded set of jewellery with ochre and yellow and coffee colours in it’s palette. Each bead is completely different to every other and there are 70 beads in total.
I wanted something to create something that would be comfortable to wear and would go with a number of different outfits (as there is nothing worse than having a piece of jewellery you can’t wear with anything), Also I didn’t want the beads to be too large…
You see lots and lots of clothes about right now with ochre in the palette and it’s also being used quite a bit in home furnishings, but very little jewellery, so obviously we need to put that straight!
I first chose a bundle of tasty glass in all the colours that I fancied the look of and held them up to the light to see what kind of effect I would get in the finished article.
I love this stage of the project as everything is ‘to play for’ and you feel that there are so many possibilities you could follow.
I used one of my favourite stringing techniques which is knotting the cord between each bead (this is a neutral coloured hemp cord that I got from Cookson Gold). You often see this method used on strings of pearls. It helps to keep the item comfortable and stops the pearls ‘chinking’ together.
The necklace is finished with sterling silver findings and a sterling silver toggle clasp.
Making the beads
I made the beads for the necklace in three separate bead-making sessions (each session took a good few hours) Each time when I got the new ones out of the kiln I compared them with ones I already had and checked that I had the right balance of colour variation, texture and pattern, light and shade and size.
Stringing the beads together
I tried a number of different ‘layouts’ before deciding on the final one. I wanted to get the variation of colour just right. I have grey, bright yellow, ochre, mustard, chocolate brown, coffee, cream and amber. All colours play their part.
Each bead is very different, but they all come together to make a quirky set with much interest and texture. This piece will soon be on the website shop. Many thanks for coming to my blog. x
