This is my second design with the bevy of beads from Miss Molly's Designs. This time, I chose to work with the pale blue and brown set, with beads that ranged from the chunky to the more sedate.
Enameled beads by nature are lightweight, and I wanted to make a "half-and-half" necklace, meaning, half the necklace would be predominantly enameled beads, and the other half would be something else. What that Something Else would be remained to be seen.
The challenge was three-fold -- one, find beads that matched the size of the large enameled beads, two, find complimentary colors for the unique blue shade, and three, find beads that were of equal weight to the enamel beads.
After much poking around, I found a solution. Large fluted bleached wood rounds, natural wood triangles, and these awesome Czech glass beads that couldn't have had a more perfect coloration if I'd designed them myself.
My other challenge was to NOT use metal spacers between any of the beads as I'm used to doing. I just automatically go for them every. single. time. I was determined this time to just leave it alone, choosing to finish the necklace with an antiqued vermeil clasp.
Question is, what do you think? Do you think I SHOULD have used small gold spacers between some of the beads? Is the bleached wood too pale? I know I got the size right, but tell me what you REALLY think.
You can find more of Miss Molly's work at the following:
Molly Alexander
Shop: Click here
Blog: Click here
Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off. She's also a contributor to Art Bead Scene. She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.
