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Friday, November 26, 2010

A Necklace a Day - Twenty Six

Rocky Purple Bead Palette

The necklace I was going to share today has been postponed. It was nearly finished when I noticed a huge stitching error that could not be ignored. And since I didn’t have enough time to take it apart and start over, I had to come up with a new design and fast!

I already had a purple tagua slice on deck for later. It’s the last color in my stash of tagua and all I needed was a palette to use it with.

I really like orange and purple together, almost as much as I like stretching combinations to the far edges of the color wheel. Something told me to pair the bright purple up with rich browns, and I’m glad I listened!

I pulled some purple fire polish, vintage beads in dark topaz, some caramel seed beads and fuchsia 8/o‘s for accents. I wanted to start by making a bail for the pendant, and this is where my luck came back to me. It wasn’t until I sat down to start stitching that I noticed how big the hole in the pendant was - too big even for a 6/o seed bead to cover.

Beach Rubble Pendant by The Sage's Cupboard

So I mentally scanned my stash, trying to come up with a suitable cover or cap. I remembered my slowly dwindling collection of mother of pearl chips - many of which are wide and flat. I picked out two pieces that were just right and got to work.

I incorporated more mother of pearl into the design, and ended up with a great seaside piece. I love how it has a great ocean vibe without a hint of blue or green. Now to fix my blundered necklace!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading

4 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous. The colours remind me of those shells you find with purple in them, so they work perfectly for a seaside piece.

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  2. Thank you! I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and it has me wanting to work with the shell chips even more.

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  3. Hi there! I know its an old post but I love this necklace! Purple with orange & purple with green are one of my favourite combinations! :)

    But I wanted to ask you something else... How did you encase your purple fire polish beads with seed bead loops? And I'm sorry if I have asked this before... I know it must be simple but I just can't get it! I'm hoping you'll help me out...

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    1. Thank you! This is still one of my favorite bead palettes.

      The chains are made with a backwards variation of daisy chain. I have a full tutorial for a necklace using the stitch here:

      www.etsy.com/listing/79318611/

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