How To Design Jewellery, Ruby Zoisite & Easter
9th March 2019
See us at Norwich Bead Fair tomorrow, 10th March 2019 at Best Western George Hotel, Arlington Lane, Norwich NR2 2DA. Free entry, free refreshments & free gifts!
Combine with a visit to the fine city centre shops – open 11am to 4pm Sunday.
Then, the following weekend at Brighton Gem n Bead Fair, 17th-18th March, at Brighton Racecourse.
For details of our shows booked so far this new year click 2019 Bead Fairs.
Pictures show the MrBead Stall at Norwich and Brighton 2018.
Content:
How To Design Jewellery For Beginners
Ruby Zoisite
Easter Beading
The Big Bead Show
Early Bead Fairs
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How to Design Jewellery For Beginners
Some MrBead newsletter readers ask me for more basic help – well here it is. Beware though, it’s very addictive!
You’ll get a lot of pleasure out of using your fashion sense and creativity designing beaded jewellery – but how do you start, and then how do you improve your skill?
How to Start
Some beginners find a bead loom is the easiest way to begin. Sketch your design on graph paper and select the beads you want to use for the project. Match the color of beads to the color you draw on paper.
If you don’t want to buy a lot of beads and tools that will be left over, purchase a bead making kit for just one project.
Many start using patterns online or from magazines. Then after gaining experience making a few items, they experiment with ideas of their own.
Leaf through fashion magazines and learn current trends. Make notes when you see anything appealing, like a model wearing earrings that go well with her sweater. Then work with your pieces to create a variation on the look.
Colour
Choice the colour of your necklace first, and then match earrings or other jewellery around this. Blend colours that are similar – contrasting colour seldom works. Aim for harmony and it will please the eye. However, learn how to use a colour wheel to create effects with stunning combinations too.
Size of Beads
To help decide on the size of beads to use, liken designing to a flower arrangement – start with the larger flowers first, then fill in with smaller ones. Bearing in mind the design must be functional and practical to wear.
Balance
Balancing jewellery is more an art than a science – however, certain guidelines generally apply:
- Avoid symmetry & even numbers together.
- It’s OK and good to use different types of beads in one design – like crystals, pearls and gemstones combined in one piece.
- Your design should feel good to the eye.
- All the elements in the design should be in harmony and complement each other.
- Think of this harmony as yin & yang, large & small, light & dark etc.
- If you use a focal bead, it must stand out drawing attention.
Findings
Findings are spacers, bead caps, and jump rings creatively. Use these to add style and professionalism to your design.
Start with a Frame
The basic elements of design outlined above are your building blocks. Use them as your starting point from which to alter the design into something from your heart. They’ll ensure your produce powerful jewellery.
Where to find Inspiration
You want to design a new jewellery piece, but how do you get the creativity flowing to come up with a wave of ideas? Creativity stems from within. Your brain stores everything you have seen and experienced – ideas spring from these memories. You already have millions of designs imbedded in your mind. The problem is getting them out! Never underestimate your own creativity.
Think new to create new
Rearrange your mind in every way you can – if you always think along the same lines, you’ll end up with the same ideas.
If you get stuck – paint with a different brush!
Live life more
Build your creativity by collecting ideas all the time. Look at many different designs, online and offline. Talk with customers and other designers. The smallest thing can spark a new idea.
Inspiration comes from many sources apart from jewellery – especially the latest fashions in various forms. Try different experiences and travel more. The more diverse or the further travelled the better.
Analyze why some pieces of jewellery draw your attention, while others look dull. Is it because one element is emphasized over another? Is it a play of colour or shape? Does the design resemble something fashionable?
From a basic frame, experiment arranging beads in different ways, using shape, colour and stone to produce striking design. As long as the overall effect has harmony, it will look attractive.
How do I know I have a Good Design?
The successful jewellery design fits into the overall market – yet is distinctive enough to influence browsers to purchase.
A well designed piece moves with the body, feels good to wear, and looks pleasing and harmonious to the eye. A necklace should drape nicely and it must feel right.
The design has to be creative, yet within the boundaries of wear-ability, and it must appeal to the customer or it won’t sell.
Ruby Zoisite Beads For Love!
Zoisite is a creative stone, its energy coming from the red and green colors. In the chakra system red relates to creativity and sexuality, and green is associated with healing, balancing, and abundance.
By itself, ruby is associated with passion. It can bring anger to the surface, and will amplify any emotion. Zoisite provides a natural medium for softening ruby’s qualities.
However, its green cools and stabilizes. This is very valuable when passion seems overwhelming, and ruby in zoisite is excellent for healing a broken heart and reducing obsessive feelings about another person.
It can also be very helpful for creative energies. Often ideas swirl around in our head, never quite reaching realization. What is needed is stabilizing energy, which zoisite provides.
Ruby zoisite has become more popular. This may indication that more people are ready to have relationships which heal, not hurt, and to be more expressive of their innate creativity.
See our ruby zoisite beads at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
EASTER BEADING
Bunny and egg designs and flower beads are great for the Easter and spring jewellery.
We have a whole category of flower beads made from all stones and material. Some millefiori, some agate, some jade and some metal.
Choose pastel colours and mix them to make a bright, light, design. Pearls are also popular this time of year, along with all types of crystal and jade.
These all produce a bright, high-key look. White, yellows, greens and pinks look good, giving a spring-like feel. Colourful seed beads can be used to cover eggs and other objects to give an Easter look.
Give a loved one a pearl necklace for an Easter present – she will look so good wearing it on Easter Day. Plus, flower bead bracelets and earrings are so easy to make too. Happy Easter!
For ideas, see what others are making this Easter on Elsy
See Our Flower Beads at MrBead.co.ukor MrBead.
The Big Bead Show
This is the largest bead-only fair in the UK, next on Saturday 6th April.
MrBead has a huge stall, along with about 80 other exhibitors. For full details and tickets click here.
For beaders in Norwich and surroundings, Easton’s Coaches have laid on travel to Sandown Park on 19th October for £43 return – To book click here. However, it’s too late for the couch company to organize a trip to the spring Big Bead, this is for October.
Early Bead Fairs
- Sunday 10th March: Norwich Bead Fair – Full details here.
- Sat & Sun 16th-17th March: Brighton Gem n Bead Fair – Full details here.
- Sat & Sun 23rd-24th March: Cheltenham Gem n Bead Fair – Full details here.
- Saturday 30th March: Kilburm London MrBead Bead Fair – Full details here.
- Saturday 6th April: The Big Bead Show, Sandown Park – Full details here.
To see all the bead shows we have booked so far click Bead Fairs 2019 – many more yet to add!
See our beads at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
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