Today I’m tackling another design challenge that I have visited in past years. I thought it would be interesting to see how the finished bracelet would look and feel with the recent updates to my collection.
Over the past couple of years I have made a conscious effort to add certain shapes and sizes of silvers to my personal collection. I’m very particular about each silver – it has to have a meaning that makes me happy, but it also has to function well for the way I like to build my bracelets. I tend to make balanced compositions, so that means that pairs of silvers are useful. However, with very few exceptions I tend not to actually buy duplicate designs, but rather prefer to find patterns that are complementary to each other in both theme and dimension.
Luckily for me, Trollbeads tends to have a few relatively standard size grades within which they produce a number of designs. For example, “Jugend””Carved Flowers””” and even the “Rolling Troll” all have a similar form and size, so they work well to balance each other in a bracelet. I often use “Ball of””Sweater” together for the same reason. One bead that I simply had to twin in my collection was the “Bee on Hive”… it’s one of my favorite silvers, as it features the Bee image that I take as my personal emblem. It’s soooo useful to have that one pair for bangles, necklaces and so on.
I like to group silvers not only by appearance, but also to some extent by narrative theme. For example, I usually place my “Ball of Yarn” and “Sweater” together on a bracelet along with my “Spider”. I like to think that the spider is a crafty little knitter of webs. Similarly, I place my “Frogs”, “Neither Fish Nor Bird” and two “Happy Fish” on a design together for a wetland sort of a theme.
Perhaps the most relevant habit that I usually employ, however, is that I always…*nearly always* mix the glass or stones in with silver. Occasionally I might make a bangle with only one metal bead. From time to time I might make up an all-amber or all-glass bracelet. But all-silver? Nope. Only for the challenge! It’s a tough one for me, as it’s missing the colour elements that are my comfort zone. It’s also very tricky to build all-silver while creating a sense of order to the design. This year, with the addition of more size pairs, I think I’ve managed to design a bracelet that I would make and wear again.
It has a very comfortable amount of movement on the bracelet, which results in a very fluid feel in the hand. It’s satisfyingly heavy and I am enjoying wearing it today!
C.
The pair of stones that I have employed in this design are the smooth, retired form of “Chalcedony” and a treasured, very translucent “Dendritic Agate”. I’ve had the Chalcedony for many years, but the Dendritic Agate is a very recent addition. I came across it just before the Challenge began, so it managed to slip into the collection just in time. Dendritic Agate is a variety of Chalcedony Quartz, and is often found with deposits of other types of Chalcedony. This relationship is easy to see in a translucent example such as this, where the two stones are nearly identical, save for a few traces of Dendritic Agate’s distinctive fern textural markings. Imagine how difficult it must be for stone cutters to predict how to cut and facet these stones to best display their hidden branchlike patterns… years of experience and well honed instincts must be required!
I adore cranberry red, even more so when combined with other saturated tones such as raspberry, pink, coral, goldenrod yellow – or in this case all of them! It’s a “Singapore sling” bracelet with juicy sunset colours that range from soft pink and peach down into egg yolk yellow, raspberry, tomato red and claret. These riotous colours all play together nicely, partly because they are all in the warm red family, but also because the textures and patterns of the glass are of a similar complexity and mood.
Last year I tried this same approach, and the result was a bracelet that felt surprisingly different from my usual compositions. It was super light, and the itty bitty beads were tactile and wonderful. My difficulty in creating that design was that I simply didn’t own enough tiny beads to create a palette and pattern that was pleasing to my eye. My conclusion then was that I “*needed* more small & beautiful beads! Over the past year I have kept my eyes open, looking for great additions to this niche of my collection, and as a result this year’s bracelet looks very different.
I began to tease this combination together over the past few days, inspired by a very special “Honey Bud”. This retired Trollbeads can be seen close to the middle of the bracelet design, tucked between the “Bee on Hive” and the Switzerland World Tour “Mountain Crystal”. Then, as often happens during the Challenge, I was delighted to see that another Trollbeads Collector, Linda Jo, was working on a similar theme! She posted a beautiful “Honey and Vanilla” design on our 
Today’s bracelet was inspired by a couple of fun uniques in a distinctive palette of lilac, buttercream and coral.
They’re not unusual patterns, but today their cheerful colour combination caught my eye. Perhaps it’s because now we’re starting to look forward to Spring, and those pretty colours are just the tonic for the dark months of the year… (don’t they make you think of purple crocus?) Perhaps it’s because I’m a little sad to see “Coral Bubbles” out of the collection, and these two lovelies are such perfect companions for that design… or perhaps it’s just because I was in a purple mood. Troll is so easy to toss together on a whim!
This bracelet really was so simple to tease together. Funny, isn’t it – some bracelets are a struggle from beginning to end, and others practically design themselves. This one was very cooperative, with beads just jumping out at me from the racks, begging to be added. I was particularly delighted with the addition of the unique flower shown above, as it included both the oxblood and the lilac found in the “Small & Beautiful” unique at left. The clear glass overlay in the above unique is lilac, making it a good companion for “Golden Cave” as well.
How serendipitous that the Aurora Flowers that we have in stock at the moment have such a strong garnet colour in the base! I just love how these look in the light, particularly with the very light, lemon-y “Golden Quartz”…. Just perfect for this spiced lilac combination. The thing I like best about this palette is how simple it is to create with a wide variety of bead designs…. Most of us have collected some golden hued beads and some aurora glass. Perhaps your purples were in play with other jewel tones through the Autumn and Winter, but they can be rearranged into this palette for early Spring in a snap.
Today I enjoyed a day of mid winter brilliant sunshine here at Tartooful… We went for our morning trail walk along the creek close to our home, and the combination of pure blue sky and rich green forest was absolutely magical! It’s been a wonderful experience to get to know the forest in an intimate way over the past six months, as we have walked the same trail over and over through the changing of the seasons. When we started our daily trail walks it was the height of Summer, with warm, dawns that broke at five in the morning.
The midsummer forest was lush and brilliant emerald green, with soft leaves filling the branches of the birch that line the creek. The trail was dusty and stayed on my skin and in my nostrils long after we had gone on with the rest of our day. Over the weeks my feet came to know every rock, and every turn of the trail. Just when I thought I had it’s path fully memorized the season began to turn to Autumn and it became a completely different place again. With the arrival of the rains the paths first became hard and wet… then became sodden in low places and occasionally even became little creeks!
When the leaves first started to fall it felt strange, how messy, and brown our little stretch of forest was becoming… but then the light began to change and the beauty of the Autumnal forest became more clear. With every leaf that dropped, the floor of the forest became a little more brightly illuminated, and little treasures became visible in every nook and cranny. Fall blooming crocus peeked through here, a patch of brilliant yellow mushrooms there… even the slugs seemed taken aback by the sudden bright light!
All in-stock starter bracelets, regularly priced CAD$86 to $129 are now 25% off, and now range from CAD$64.50 to CAD$96.75. These bracelets include Trollbeads’ iconic, sterling silver foxtail chain, a variety of locks, and one of several sparkling group one glass beads.
In addition, all in-stock retired beads are also priced at 25% off.
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