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Add bumpy beads to your design universe

 By Bethany Waldrop Keiper

 "It was a thing of beauty and was sent -- To live its life out as an ornament." -- Robert Frost

 Bumpy beads are fun to design with, especially if you have problems making up your mind about which colors you'd like to combine. The skilled lampwork artist who put torch to glass to create the beautiful bauble of bead has created the tiny color universe for you.

 The number of colors in your universe can be from one (a monochromatic bumpy bead) to as many colors as the artist can fit on a single bead. The bumpy eyes on these beads are really polka dots with an extra punch of personality.

The hues of lovely pale green and light amethyst come together in this piece to provide a sweet combination. With three soft colors in my bead's universe, I chose softly patterned, matte leaves to match the large "eyes" and matte, striped beads to match the background color of the bead. Firepolished AB amethyst beads further match the color of the big bumps, while, tiny white delicas match the small dots on the bead. Silver caps, cones, and flower accents add sparkle to all.

With all of the different hues of glass that go "under the torch" to create each one of these individually-made beads, the color combinations sometimes seem endless. And even if the basic designs, colors, and patterns of a batch of these beads are the same, each individual one is still unique.

Still on the soft and sweet side, white and bright turquoise blue make a very pretty pair in bumps and swirls. Although there are only two colors here, there are many different types of beads used. The bumpy bead is combined with a Swarovski bicone's sparkle, a smooth oval swirl, a silver bicone, a fiber optic bead's glow, a tiny silver accent, two types of silver bead caps and a silver wire swirl at the bottom for a whimsical touch.

This next earring is both a combination of rich colors and bumpies with bumpers. First, the rich colors. The rich green background of the bumpy bead is the perfect field for the sunny bumps on top. The golden color of the 8mm facetted firepolished bead is an almost exact match, and seems to actually glow from within. A simple leaf in a more subdued green brings things to a natural point.

 Now on to the bumpers. Bumpers are new to me and are tiny little things that fit into designs and do many good things. In this design, they make the leaf bead stay put, facing the correct direction. Shaped beads facing the wrong direction bother me, because when I wear them, they always do. So these bumpers are nifty. I continued to stack them loosely the rest of the way up because I liked the color of them.

Going back to our universe metaphor, this bead is truly out of this world with colors!

First, you have bright green bumps and the flowers of the same shade. Then facetted opal purple-pink firepolished beads carry on the base color, and tiny white fiber optic rounds add charm while continuing to echo the colors. Purposely leaving out beads that match the blue swirl helps to play up this color. While this design is shown with an oval focal bead, a barrel shaped bead could easily take its place.

Highlight this group of colors with plenty of golden accents. In this design, 2mm rounds, corrugated 4mm bicones, corrugated 3mm rounds and different kinds of golden bead caps add elegance and harmony.

 Purple-pink, peridot, white, and blue swirl bumpy bead, and 2mm stretchy bead bumpers in gold available from and courtesy of the Bead Peddler.

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