I've been working on Friendly Plastic beads over the weekend - gorgeous colours..... blue, turquoise and gold - colours that work so well together. But when I came to assemble the beads into a bracelet, I had nothing in my stash that worked - my gold beads were too bright and brassy looking and my blues were all the wrong shade. So it was time to get creative and think outside the square.
And this is what I came up with: use the beadcaps I'd used on the Friendly Plastic beads to create my own matching, multi-layered gold beads. Here's what I did.
I gathered a variety of bead caps, beads and of course, eye pins. An inexpensive way to get a selection of bead caps is with one of these bulk mixes that contain an assortment of sizes, shapes and textures.
I decided on this combination - a smooth gold metal spacer bead, a pointed bead cap to give some height, and a filigree bead for texture and visual interest. The red bed is simply to keep the two filigree bead caps in place. It's slightly visible when the bead is assembled so you'll need to coordinate it with the beads you're using.
Assemble the beads and caps in the order shown and then reverse the order for the other end.
Hold the eye pin in your flat nosed pliers close to the end of the last bead and bend it at a 90° angle.......
then turn a loop using round nosed pliers.
And voilà, a very unique, one of a kind bead that matches the bracelet perfectly!
TIP!
If you find your bead isn't sitting quite right, add a few dabs of a metal jewellery adhesive to the bead caps - something like Beadalon's Bead Fix Gel or Beacon's Glass, Metal & More will do the trick!Pin this for later!
'Til next time.....
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This is neat - you see, my solution would have been to paint something! Nothing has to stay the colour it was made. It doesn't work on everything, but that generally doesn't deter me...
ReplyDeleteGood idea Pauline! It didn't even occur to me to colour something.... that would have given an interesting result - must try that next time!
ReplyDeleteLove the beads, fab colours. Must have a go at those
ReplyDeleteHi Mylene,
ReplyDeleteI love your jewellery, it looks so good. I have pinched the image of the bracelet and put it on my blog (with links)as an excellent example of bead rolling, hope you don't mind.
What a beautiful piece!
ReplyDeleteI need to learn how to do these beads!