Design Tip

Design Tip Achives:
Wedding Cake Beads, Rainbow of Colors, Focal Beads, Leaf Beads Part 1, Leaf Beads Part 2, Earth Tones, Beaded Tree Ornaments, Heart Designs, The Meaning of Colors

Mix and match beads
for custom designs

Bethany W. Keiper

"It was a good match, which could have gone either way and very nearly did." -- Jim Sherwin

Learning to make jewelry can give you a sense of freedom -- the freedom to make whatever you want to match whatever you want. In this month when there is much emphasis put on "a perfect match," try dabbling in a little matchmaking of your own.

You may already design items to match local schools' team colors and holiday colors, but have you ever thought of taking beads and making designs to perfectly reflect a favorite item of clothing?

If a piece of clothing has too busy of a pattern, jewelry in plain gold or silver, or one solid color, might be best. But a simple pattern, with its colors reflected in a set of coordinating jewelry, has a classic, pulled-together look.

Some matches happen naturally, while others may take a bit of searching to complete. One of my first good matches happened when I bought a new suit for Easter one year. The suit was black, with aqua and gold trim in a zigzag pattern, and a matching aqua shell. The aqua was sort of an odd shade, so I took the shell with me to a bead store to try my luck.

The focal beads I found were an identical match for the entire suit. The oval black beads featured a centered band of gold accented with aqua swirls in a zigzag pattern. Since then, I have been on a matchmaking mission. Lampworked beads often have several colors all in one bead, making them great for matchmaking.

Several years ago I found a beautiful butterfly charm on a clearance rack, with no earrings to match. I thought I might find something in my collection of earrings to work with it, but nothing did.

Finally, by chance, some beads I had purchased in a different state than I had purchased the butterfly matched perfectly, while some darker blue accent beads left over from another project provided the perfect complement.[

This is a service you can offer to your customers. Many times, an item of jewelry just does not seem to have a ready-made match available. It can be very satisfying to finally find a match for a favorite item.

Another great match happened completely coincidentally. I had some beads sharing the same shape and colors, and decided to put them together into a bracelet. The green disk beads had light blue, orange, and gold stripes on them, so I combined them with disks striped with light blue and aqua, and light and dark orange. The finished product looked great, but I didn't have a thing to wear with it.

About three months later, I purchased a blouse at an end-of-season sale. As I prepared to wear it for the first time, I looked through my jewelry for something to match, and found the bracelet. The bracelet's colors matched the blouse's floral embroidery perfectly. It was almost kind of creepy, as though the colors in the beads and the colors of the blouse were out there looking for each other, and I was just the catalyst that made it happen.

Beads with different colored stripes or dots on them can be a great asset to custom designs, if you can find them in colors that match the design you wish to reflect.

While shopping during a vacation in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, I found a pretty sleeveless navy blue dress with a short-sleeved, aquatic-print jacket. I am a devoted fish fan, so I had to have it. The jacket's print featured fish and aquatic plants in all the colors of the rainbow scattered across the fabric. A few years later I purchased a grab bag of fire-polished, facetted beads, and wouldn't you know it -- in the mix there were two of each color in the correct size. Each color was so beautiful, that I didn't want the bracelet to have a visible beginning or end, so I made it on Beadalon Elasticity.

Round or fire-polished facetted beads are great for custom designs. Their vivid colors, from peridot to pale lavender, make even the most simple design striking. Just put two of each color together, or make a repeating pattern, and separate them with clear, clear and gold, gold, or silver spacers.

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