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, Oval Beads, Flower Designs Part 1, Flower Designs Part 2, Cane Glass, Mobiles and Home Decor, Fish Beads Provide Fall Color, Bright Halloween Colored Beads, Colorful Fall Beads, Holiday Beads, Jewelry for Moms To Be, Spring Pastels, Sexy Bead Styles, Bumpy Beads, Patriotic Designs, Summer Designs, Shells, Basic Black, Not so Basic Black, Dichroics, Traditional Christmas Designs, Prayer, Purple, Spring Colors, Romantic Designs, White and Gold, Pearls, Clear Crystal, Peridot, Hematite, Neutrals, Red, Copper

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Celebrate February with heart-inspired designs

By Bethany Waldrop Keiper

"A light heart lives long." -- William Shakespeare

It seems now that most of the emphasis of Valentine's Day is put upon whether or not you are entangled in a romantic relationship of some sort. But Valentine's Day is supposed to be about love itself. This love may be for your friends, your family, your pets, your beadwork, or, how about showing a little love for yourself?

Valentine's Day is all about hearts as an expression of love, and one of the best ways to love yourself is to take care of your heart. This month, let's look at some heart health-inspired heart jewelry designs.

Three key items for heart health are eating a heart-healthy diet, improving cholesterol levels and reducing blood pressure. One thing that is good for all of these tasks is soluble fiber, which helps with cholesterol levels and blood pressure. This sounds like a job for oatmeal! Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber (along with dried beans, barley, apples, citrus fruits and potatoes).

It sounds like oatmeal is the perfect way to start out your day, and this breakfast-inspired bracelet is a great way to keep your wardrobe in shape. Oatmeal-colored hearts and creamy white hearts alternate between oatmeal and cream swirled glass rounds in this design. Soft, pale, tan 4mm rounds and silver bead caps and accents finish the look. This bracelet makes a perfect companion for khaki, which is worn just about every season of the year.

One relatively new item in the heart-healthy diet is tea. According to information from the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, "drinking black or green tea (which contain antioxidants) may help reduce a potentially harmful constriction of blood vessels after a high-fat meal." Studies have shown that the proper amount of antioxidant-rich foods (such as vegetables and fruits) and beverages may possibly prevent heart disease.

To remember to get your share of antioxidants, treat yourself to a relaxing cup of tea and work on this design -- a mixture of green and black tea-inspired beads.

Glossy black rounds and tiny gold accents are the setting for a mixture of green beads. Facetted, firepolished 8mm beads, olivine leaves, and long tubes with a splash of goldstone were my choices. These green beads are the setting for the focal bead -- a pretty black millefiori heart, which echoes the green colors in its designs.

You can choose a black millefiori heart with matching flowers in it, or select a large, all-black heart with a smooth or facetted surface. To finish the necklace, continue alternating black rounds with green shapes, or simply complete both sides in black beads to the clasp.

In keeping with healthy choices, we go from green and black tea to bright orange foods and juices. Opaque, large orange hearts and smaller, glowing, clear orange hearts are a pretty reminder of the carrots, sweet potatoes and orange juice that need to be a part of a heart-healthy diet. These two kinds of orange hearts are combined with small white and gold painted rounds, corrugated gold rounds, and orange and white rose-shaped beads for a hearts-and-flowers design.

One of the biggest problems people face is controlling stress; it seems to be everywhere, from traffic to office to home to the line in the grocery store. The key is taking some time, even if it is just a few minutes, to find something to laugh about, to take a walk, and to get some fresh air.

This design is all about remembering to de-stress and de-compress. The heart itself reminds you to take a walk and take some time to smell the flowers. The heart's colors are drawn from in the necklace to represent relaxation in nature: the crystal clear beads are fresh air; the blue bicones are blue skies; the white opaque rounds are white clouds; the orange bicones are the warm sunshine; and the iridescent green beads are grassy paths and fields.

Resources:

Heart health information from the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. http://www.umm.edu/features/tips_prev.html

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