Trollbeads Inspiration: Bracelet Envy

It’s happened to all of us… there are so many beautiful bracelets out there, it’s inevitable that one see a bracelet that belongs to another Trollie, and and fall  head over heels in lust with it!  Online there is a feast of images available to view for design ideas, and the key is to run with the inspiration, and create something that is uniquely yours.

My Refreshed Purples

The topic arose this week as I decided to refresh my teal and purple bracelet for Spring, lightening and softening to a lilac and mossy aqua combination.  I had it with me at the gallery and more than a couple of our ladies lamented that they would love a bracelet like that – and what a shame that the beads were from my private reserve…

but the truth is, a similar combination can easily be created using an array of current production and unique pieces.  Most ladies have a number of beads already in their collections that they could use as the base of the composition, and would only have to tweak the design with a few new additions to create a very similar look!

To build a soft lilac and cool green bracelet for Spring I reached for a nice soft Labradorite and a starting point.  Like eveyone, I do love the Labs that show a big diva flash, but even understated ones are a gorgeous shade of greyed blue green that works into nearly everything that I design.  Two labs firmly set this design’s mood.

I placed one of the newest designs in the collection right in the middle of this bracelet… I love the new Mother’s Garden pendant, and think it’s fabulous either on a necklace or on a bracelet such as this one!  With a soft oval shape and an appealing vine pattern, it’s a beautiful centerpiece for this design.  I cradled a “White Petals” (Which isn’t white at all, but a misty lilac…) in the new pendant, and I do like the effect the petal shapes give, allowing lots of light to come through and show off the silverwork.  Working my way out from that beginning, I blended and handful of soft lilac uniques with beloved production beads such as “Purple Flower Mosiac”, “Purple Prism”, “Grey Prism” and “Magical Lamp”.  It took no time at all to build a doppelganger for my own bracelet that has its own distinct personality.

Clockwise from Clasp:  “Large Flower Clasp”, “Purple Prism”, (such a pale, water colour version – isn’t it pretty?) “Unique”, “Hearts Galore”, Unique”, “Limited Edition Kimono”, “Purple Flower Mosaic”, “Dandelions”, “Labradorite”, “Limited Edition”, “Mothers Garden + White Petals”, “Unique”, (LOVE this one…) “Labradorite”, “Mothers Bouquet”, “Purple Flower Mosaic”, “Magical Lamp”, “Unique”, “First Signs”, “Unique”, “Grey Prism”.

C.

Inspiration found… the Autumn Garden

This time of year it feels as though the garden is having one last little celebration of the year… one final fling before it’s time for many of our favorite plants to take a few months of well deserved rest.

Ever since I was a child I’ve imagined the deciduous trees dressing up in their party best of gold and red to throw one final celebration of a year well done.  After all, they’ve been working hard ever since Spring… busy busy, make the flowers, make the leaves,

grow the leaves, time for new shoots, grow those branches, reach for more sunlight, go go go…. then time for fruit and berries, set those nuts, make the seeds, busy busy busy no time to rest if you are a tree.  Until October.  Then, it’s time to have a wild celebration of colour and pass out til Spring.  Isn’t it fantastically fun?  I’ve always thought it would make a great childrens’ book, with lovely watercolour illustrations.  Perhaps one of these days I’ll get to that project.

In the meanwhile the Autumn garden offers me unlimited inspiration.  Even as flowers finish and die down, leaves become tattered and the songbirds flee South… the quieter, more subtle stars of the Autumn garden come into their own.

You’ll have to look a little closer to notice some of them.  The macro lens that I use to photograph Trollbeads glass is trained on tiny droplets of dew glistening on Lady’s Mantle leaves.  A carpet of moss is a miniature forest, with seeds glowing in the warm light.

A few flowers stand bravely in the garden… Coneflowers, Japanese Anemones, sedum and hardy fuschias are still adding flourishes of raspberry in various sunny corners.

… and oh my the mushrooms!  Love these magical little things, more creature than plant, popping up unexpectedly in crazy patterns about the lawn, flower beds and all over.  Such amazing shapes and forms.

Finally, after one has been looking closely for some time, it’s easy to forget to look up… in my garden its way, wayyyy up to the top of the trees… sometimes clothed in low lying clouds, other times catching the sun and glowing madly.  The trees feel like the real owners of our piece of the world – having been here long before our family, or the family before us, or any of the houses.  Surely these sturdy mammoths will be here long after as well.

It’s wonderful timing that the same day I took these images, one of our most beloved Trollies popped into the gallery with an inspired bracelet composition that she calls her “Secret Garden”… stay tuned to see a design that could so easily have been created with these garden photographs in mind…

C.