Custom designed jewelry is fun to create! I get an order and feel like a Santa Claus making a “wish come true” jewelry.
It starts with an idea! I never had a problem having a few ideas. Usually, I have too many to handle. But there are so many other components of successful jewelry design, that I am starting to doubt it is just pure fun and some work involved.
Let’s see how many elements play a part in the designing and implementation process of delivering jewelry set to a customer.
Idea
When a customer describes what she or he wants to wear, I ask as many questions as I can. Why? Because her idea in words might mean something totally different than the concept I visualize. Whenever possible I work with images.
I had an initial image of earrings as a start. It was some kind of earrings shaped like a starfish and covered with same color seed beads. I didn’t like the earrings and said it right in the beginning. I saw how to make them better, And that is what I offered.
The idea of a bracelet was totally dependent on the earrings.
Colors
I had to stay within the limited palette that had to match the client’s garment. The set did not have to be super shiny, so I had to stick with medium gloss or none in the finish surface of the seed beads.
Bead Selection
My bead selection initially included the glass pearls, which I like to add in many of my designs. However, the width of the bracelet and size of the earrings did not fit those pearls, in my opinion. Since I did not want to design around pearls, I excluded them.
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No matter how much you love this bead or that component, if it doesn’t fit in your design, discard it.
So I had seed beads, and some fire polished beads left.
I used several pink tones of seed beads size 11 and a tiny amount of seed beads size 15 just for the earrings.
Starfish Earrings
Starfish earrings are probably the star of this set. This was the design idea I had to figure out first.
I described it in Starfish Earrings Bead Embroidery.
Obviously, I chose the bead embroidery technique for this part of the set, because the image I was given for reference suggested it had to be bead embroidery.
Starfish Bracelet
For the bracelet, I had no particular instructions. I asked lots of questions and based on the answer of my client, I concluded that I can design something within the width of the bracelet she wanted.
The best implementation would be familiar to me peyote stitch base bracelet with embellishments.
My original version of peyote based bracelet is 12 seed beads wide. The Starfish bracelet had to be narrower, and therefore I decided to make it 10.
First, I considered making bead embroidered starfish elements for the bracelet, but I doubted how two techniques combine well in the end. This was the reason to design my own bead-woven starfish. It had to be the right size and shape.
I did not shop for starfish patterns. It was obvious to me how to make my own. After making two samples, I had the starfish I wanted.
Currently, I am working on the beading pattern for this little sea creature. So, stay tuned! Subscribe to my newsletter to receive the “insider” discount for all new pattern PDFs and get all new posts emailed to you.
Jewelry Set
It is not the technique that forms the set, it is the design.
I used the same beads in both parts of the set, and the same visual elements. The techniques came second.
That doesn’t mean that techniques are less important. It means that they are used to support the design.
If you like this set, please, like and share this post with your beading friends!
Happy beading!
