Thursday, January 05, 2017

Amazingly Simple Golden Beauty Choker

Amazingly Simple Golden Beauty Choker

Created by Carmi Cimicata for John Bead Corp. and Perles Et Cetera Magazine


There are moments when you shop for beads when you come across components that you instantly know will create a spectacular piece of jewelry. That was my reaction to the launch of our company’s twelve limited edition bead mixes.   These bead mixes are unique because each collection was hand picked by our company Creative Director, Fernando DaSilva.

The John Bead Company is over 60 years old and has been importing Czech glass since the 1950s. Over these last decades, our warehouse has stockpiled some stunning firepolished and pressed glass beads that we are just now unpacking and reviewing. Some of the beads are vintage and many will never be manufactured again.   Each bead mix has a blended color palette and for my choker I selected the Gold Gravel collection.

I wanted to create a tiered choker, so a beading board was my best option to get my strand lengths correct. The options for my choker were limitless. The strands I designed featured some of the unique pressed glass pieces that deserved to be highlighted.

I then strung each strand with wire and used crimps and a crimping tool from Beadalon to secure my beads.


I attached each strand to a flat bar for spacing and then added a few links and a clasp to make my choker comfortable to wear.

With my choker complete I knew I would love a matching bracelet. Gold memory wire was all needed to string this golden cuff.

Of course, it also made sense to create earrings to match!

My new set of golden jewelry is complete and my bead mix box still seems to be half full! Working with a pre-selected collection of beads allowed me to focus on my projects and I was not distracted searching through my own stash for beads that would be compatible. Now I want to make something with the eleven other bead mixes that Fernando DaSilva selected!

Main Products Used From John Bead
GOLD GRAVEL Mixed Beads
LINK FLAT BAR
BEADALON MEMORY WIRE BRACELET


Original article in French in Perles et Cetera Magazine Winter 2017

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