Component Challenged

It’s not enough to be able to bead a really cool focal piece, for it will only languish if you don’t have a concept for how it is to be used. And that means components. That means having a flair for how the parts of a piece of beadwork harmonize (or not).

I am often challenged about where to go with a focal piece of beadwork or how to arrange a smaller repeating motif. That’s one of the reasons I set up a Pinterest Board “Jewelry Inspiration for Bead Design” which you can view here. It has been a help to me in getting some ideas about how to put necklaces together. Good design is tricky and I have also noticed that many of the successful bead artists have a background in design, which I wish I had. If you want to spend some time honing this sense, check out Charlotte Jirousek’s “Art, Design, and Visual Thinking” which can be found here.

A while back I created a motif using some 20mm lozenge-shaped beach glass beads I found at a bead show:

You can see (barely) that I attached them to each other using a band of Cubic Right Angle Weave, but I wanted something more for the strap. I wanted components. Here’s what I came up with: 

And here’s the whole necklace:

I call this my Beach Glass Dragee Necklace because those beads remind me of Mentos Dragees candies.

The Big Bead Treatment

The past couple of posts I've shown you beading with large beads and beaded components. Having messed around with this technique to my satisfaction, I flitted went on to other beading ventures. But it formed a chapter in my beading life that came back to pleasantly haunt me.

Later on, when I was trying to find a way to use the biggest Czech spike beads in a design, those 18x12mm howitzers, that caging technique came in handy. I also used some more of the big turquoise faceted beads I had left over from my original caged bead project. This is deeply satisfying to a beader - using things up. It gives us a sense of virtue (waste not) and an excuse to buy more beads (want not).

Here’s the result. I call it my Big Bead Odyssey:

And a close up:

OK, that's it on caging big beads.  I’ve scratched that itch to last awhile.