Step 1: approach the rack…
Recently I’ve had a few messages from readers, asking for more insight into the process by which we compose a bracelet here at Tartooful…. We don’t keep to any kind of a strict system by any means, we simply play with colours until they “feel” right to us, but we thought we’d try to share a little more about our approach.
Today I was inspired by this retired and pretty “Aquarium Pastel”. I like to pair this bead with light blue and apricot, rather than the usual expected chestnut browns. This results in a lighter than air and very unusual palette. I started by pulling some rods of beads that had possible candidates for the bracelet, and placing them altogether on a play tray.
Placing the inspiration bead in the center, I worked outward, adding beads one by one.
At this point I felt like it needed to feel a bit more Autumnal, so I added a few beads with soft grey and even black elements to deepen the palette a little.
“Traces” does a good job of combining the blue and grey, and Kathy Perras’ artisan “Siberian Tiger” adds a little “va va voom”. (purr!)
Now it’s time to add a little silver…
A few more beads here and there to fill out the bracelet… a few silvers that are roughly balanced for style and size… and a rearranging of order and we are at the final bracelet design. I chose the retired “Zodiac Star” first..
I picked it for the perfectly coral coloured carnelian stone at it’s heart. “Endless” is graphically punchy and interesting, and matches it well for size. I chose “Three Siblings” for it’s abstract shape that complements “Endless” so well. Finally I added “Bead of Fortune” as it matches “Three Siblings” so well with its long narrow shape.
When choosing the order of the glass I work outwards from the center of the bracelet. I do this because I like to try to make sure that the few beads at the center are able to set the tone and palette for the bracelet as a whole. I find that when I am wearing the bracelet those are the beads that I tend to notice the most, so I want to get those just right.
After the center beads are sorted I add beads in the two main colour families, trying to alternate the colours so that each bead is able to complement its neighbour. I don’t match the beads on each side perfectly, but I do try to make sure that they are balanced in visual “weight”. Imagine the design on an old-fashioned scale. The larger or darker beads are “heavier”. I also tend to have the largest beads at the middle of the bracelet and work downwards in size towards the ends of the chain. Finally I choose a clasp that I think suits the overall theme of the silvers or the season. In this case I wanted to be sure to set an appropriately Autumnal tone, so I added the “Trolltree” lock.
There you have it… the “nitty gritty” of playing together a new bracelet design at Tartoooful!
C.
Have fun browsing!
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.
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