Blue Ivory Lampwork Pendant

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to start trying new beads. Particularly unique beads, like handmade lampwork pieces. My goal is to try something new every month, and make something fun with these new treasures.

In January, I purchased three gorgeous pieces from Silver River Glass Works. I immediately fell in love with this gorgeous focal bead. The layers of ivory, and black, accented with cool blue are so pretty. I wanted to pair them up with some cute blue and green spacers, but when I saw the focal up close, plans changed.

I wanted to really highlight the simple palette of the pendant, and I thought that adding green into the mix would make things a little too busy. So I’m saving them for later - perhaps they’ll make a great bracelet. To go with the focal bead, I chose a palette of seed beads and fire polish in blue, black and light beige. The jet lined crystal seed beads fit it perfectly!

The dilemma with such a great focal piece, is deciding between an elaborate design that will do it justice, and a simple design that will let it stand out without becoming unaffordable. I eventually decided that simple was best, and added a twist to my new favorite pendant design.

Instead of adding just a single ring of seed beads around the fire polish accents, I went back for a second round, and caged the fire polish within four rows of beads. The results are so much different than the typical “reverse daisy chain”. I love the way the beads seem to orbit together.

Now to find just the right method for the blue and green spacers!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
and Silver River Glass Works
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Raspberries and Cream Lariat

When looking for a way to describe togetherness, we often use foods for analogies: peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, peas and carrots. These food combinations are examples of the perfect pair. Foods can also be very inspiring when looking for a great color combination. Mustard and ketchup, or chocolate and cherry are just two examples of great foods that also make great color combos.

The Inspiration:

I received a set of Cubic Zirconia hearts and ovals from Artbeads.com in pink and lavender. The pale colors have a sort of creamy quality to them, and a definite sweetness that is reminiscent of candy. When I set out to create a design with the CZ beads, I wanted it to be something yummy.

The Beads:

I went through my entire stash of beads, looking for just the right colors to compliment the pink and lavender beads. The first thing that caught my eye was a packet of ivory Toho triangles. I also selected some raspberry lined crystal 8/0 seed beads, and fuchsia lined 11/0’s. Altogether, these beads look good enough to eat.

The Beadwork:

My first idea was to create a heart shaped pendant using square stitch and the triangle seed beads. The pattern I created worked great, but the triangles weren’t quite right, and the pendant had a lopsided look to it. I went back to the drawing board, and considered a light Y necklace with the heart beads as focals. That’s when I had a vision of a thin and delicate daisy chain lariat, with CZ hearts at the ends.

The pink hearts were side-drilled, so I used these for the center of the bead strand, with the lavender hearts at the ends. I was surprised by the weight of the CZ ovals, which are a bit heftier than glass beads of the same size. They were perfect as bumpers for the heart section, and help to keep the tiny necklace in place when worn.

I would like to thank Artbeads.com for providing the CZ beads used in this design. Inspirational Beading has not received paid compensation for including Artbeads.com products or reviews in this blog post. I have shared my honest opinions about the products used in this design.

Copyright 2009 Inspirational Beading