Fire and Flame Pendant

So far during this year’s destash challenge, some of my favorite successes have been pieces that tackle more than one type of bead from the outbox. It’s incredibly satisfying to combine these destash beads in a single design, especially when the piece turns out as planned.

Last month I started a series of elemental Y pendants, with herringbone beaded bead focals. For the third piece, I chose a fire theme, and I was able to tackle four different bead styles at once. It all started with a single lampwork spacer that I received with an off-mandrel pendant last year. The simple swirl design has a shock of bright red, which would make the perfect topper for a fire necklace.

To add more flame, I tossed in a handful of hyacinth orange Swarovski Elements bicones, and some orange cat eyes. Even though I made my first ever starfish design with these orange beads, I still have more of them than any other 6mm round, and some of them need to go. To build the herringbone pendant, I also included ruby red AB hex cuts.

I didn’t want to go with an obvious palette of red, orange, and yellow, which could be dangerously garish. Instead, I used brown and deep garnet to round out the palette. I suppose it’s flame and char, instead of just flame. I like how it turned out, although I wish I’d had some transparent rootbeer to use, instead of the opaque red-brown. Every time I try to order some, they are sold out - they are the best brown seed beads.

I already have my eye on a destash bead for the “Ice” pendant, but I’m not ready to think winter just yet. Water will probably be the next element in the series - hopefully I can work in some more destash beads!

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