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

Add cane glass ice to cool summer designs

Bethany Waldrop Keiper

"Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth -- With greenness. . . Or if the secret ministry of frost, Shall hang them up in silent icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet Moon." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight"

When the summer's heat reaches its peak, it feels nice to take a moment and think about cooler days, when white sunlight gave snowscapes an icy crystal glow, or when icicles glittered with a promise of a watery, dripping thaw to come. High quality cane glass has always reminded me of icicles -- of swirling colors captured within an everlasting icicle.

By incorporating this beautiful glass into your designs, you can bring a cool-as-ice refreshment to summer's hottest days.

Longer, more slender pieces of cane glass lend themselves quite easily to designs in bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and anklets.

Stack up a pair of perfect earrings combining cane glass and sparkling bicones. Select a piece of cane glass for your focal bead, then add a smaller bicone below it, and graduated bicones on top. Use bicones in the same colors found inside the cane glass.

Cool-as-ice aqua blue and grape-popsicle purple combine in a bracelet that looks good enough to eat.

Since many pieces of cane glass have a hole that is bigger than most sizes of headpins or Beadalon, you can help keep it in line by threading enough crystal seed beads inside the hole to make the cane glass behave. I used silver seed beads inside the cane glass in the aqua and purple bracelet, so they would be visible and illustrate this concept. You can see them in the bead at the top left in the photo.

Give several pieces of cane glass special attention by interspersing three to five of them between clear or champagne Czech glass druks. Solid-colored cane glass looks especially beautiful when featured in this type of setting. This not only sets off the detail and color of the beads, but also saves you money and leaves you with more cane glass beads for other projects. You might feel that too many pieces in one project can make a design seem too "busy."

If "busy" designs are up your alley (I love both), try making a cane glass charm bracelet. Take a length of loopy charm bracelet chain, and attach head pins, each featuring a single cane glass piece set between caps and accent beads. This is perfect for the pieces of cane glass that might be left from various projects.

You can use pieces within the same color family, or use a carnival of colors. Mix big cylindrical cane glass beads on headpins with three or four headpins of mini cane glass beads of bright colors in between.

For a bold look, make a chunky necklace with graduated brightly-colored cane glass beads and graduated silver or gold beads in between.

Cane glass tubes within the same color family are an interesting mix with Bali silver. In a necklace or bracelet, intersperse cane glass tubes between stacks of Bali silver daisies the same length as the tubes.

One beautiful way to display a colorful piece of cane glass is to make it the focal point of a stick pin, hatpin, or hijab pin. The lovely multicolored design of this glass gives each piece more than enough grandeur to stand alone for a unique design. Complement the single bead with accents of clear, gold, or silver. This is another opportunity to make a custom design for a special hat, wrap skirt, scarf, khimar, or veil.

Chunkier, chubbier, shorter, shapelier, and wider pieces of cane glass may present more of a design challenge. This is a great opportunity to experiment with your ColourCraft bead wire. Using your jewelry-making tools, shape the wire into an oval, circle or triangle, with a slice of cane glass inside.

This allows the cane glass to dangle at all sorts of different angles and show off its beautiful array of colors. Add a loop and an earring wire, and you have a set of baubles sure to delight.

David Christensen jewel tone and rainbow cane glass beads courtesy of The Bead Peddler®

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