JewelStruck Blog

You know you’ve done it. You saw a strand of beads, or two or six, and you just had to have them. I’m certainly guilty of impulse buys of this kind, only to get home and discover I have no focal bead to go with them. So I trot back out to the local bead shop where none of the focals seem quite right. So what to do?

You don’t want to let your beautiful new beads collect dust in one of your many bead storage containers. That’s a fate no bead should ever have to face, especially not those pretties you just brought home!

Enter polymer clay. With your beads handy, you can blend polymer clay colors to craft a perfect match or complement to your new beads. And with a myriad of techniques, there’s a style for every necklace. The focal points for the necklaces above were made out of polymer clay specifically to match beads in my inventory.

The green necklace has a round focal made from a jelly role cane to match kelly green round quartz beads. I’ve also created round beads to balance out the chuunkiness of the turquoise nuggets.

The blue necklace has a trapezoidal focal bead made of of clay using a marbleizing technique. They match perfectly with the sapphire ceramic discs I just had to have. With polymer clay, you’ll always have beads to match those darling impulse buys!

You might be interested in:

• Pendants to Celebrate Fall
• Braided green glass beads ribbon necklace and earrings
• Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby earrings
• Color and Fashion: Two Monumental Elements in Jewelry Design
• Jewelry Showcase: Unique Hand Crafted Custom Designs in Beaded Jewelry by Lexi Butler ~ Beaded Jewels

I love the traditional colors of the holiday season–green, red, white, silver and gold. But sometimes these colors are so strongly associated with the holidays, like red and green, it seems inappropriate to use them any other time. So when the end of the year rolls around, I take full advantage of these festive color pairings to spread my brand of holiday cheer.

Check out these pieces at my etsy shop.

You might be interested in:

• Autumn Pleasures – Sterling Silver Leaf Charm, Peridot and Citrine Necklace
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• Romantic Fabric Jewelry
• A Jewelry every day – Orange Coloured Cats Eye Bead Necklace

I never want summer to end, but as a color enthusiast, fall foliage helps ease the transition to colder weather. I created my new line of fall pendants as an homage to the spectacular palette that mother nature annually presents those us in temperate climates. I made these out polymer clay using assorted leaf and pumpkin cookie cutters. And best of all with these leaf shaped pendants…no raking!

www.RockefellerJewelry.etsy.com

You might be interested in:

• Creating Focal Components using Polymer Clay for Impulse Bead Buys
• Fall Fashion Jewelry Trends for 2009 – An Introduction
• Autumn Pleasures – Sterling Silver Leaf Charm, Peridot and Citrine Necklace
• Jewelry Trends Fall 2009
• Fall Winter Trends : Fun with bib-necklaces!