What do you do with a leftover thread when you finish a bead project?
I save it! A piece of thread long enough to string a dozen of beads can serve me again and again! Here is how!
Color harmony is important for me. I am sure it affects even those who know nothing about color theory. Recently I got very annoyed at myself taking apart newly designed bracelet and putting it back together again several times just to change one color! (Yes, I am a perfectionist!) Being tired and angry at myself, I just thought: there must be a simpler way to match colors of bead chosen for the pattern.
The problem is when you lay all the beads on a mat you may see harmony in colors, but it doesn’t always work in a finished piece of jewelry. How to predict these miniature relationships and feel more comfortable about chosen beads?
Very easy! Use pieces of leftover thread to string several beads laying next to each other in the pattern. Then take another piece of thread and string another combination. Compare. Choose wisely!
Sometime patterns involve too many different beads (just like mine, I admit I want to have them all in one pattern). It is smart to compare different parts of the pattern. In my case, when I chose green combination I strung several beads from another part of a pattern to compare it side by side (see second illustration).
But then I realized that Tile bead I chose for this bracelet had some blue in it (see forth illustration), therefore I had to choose blue accents, instead of green.
But my blue beads seemed too shiny for me (see third illustration). Green accents still looked very attractive.
So I chose matte blue beads instead of silver lined ones. Then I strung another sample from a different section of a pattern to make a decision. This time it was not painful!
Stay tuned to see new bracelet pattern!
Happy beading!
