Hibiscus Delight

I usually keep one lampwork bead that I like best from particular bead sets for myself. I like to marvel at the bead’s patterns, colors, details or I may have a personal feeling attached to it – just to name a few of the reasons. And every now and then I let one bead or two go from my lampwork bead collection. Why? I have found equally beautiful materials to match with that bead and therefore it’s time to share it with everyone else. Like the Hibiscus Delight bracelet below.

It began with the potato-shaped creamy white freshwater pearls I used in Pure Bliss set not long ago. I felt the pearls were truly gorgeous which led me to think up of a design for other pinkish potato and tiny white keishi pearls I had in my bead bowl. It was right after a sudden urge to check my lampwork bead box I knew I should pair them with one of my favorites: the hibiscus lentil made by German artist Andrea Venschott. I love this bead’s play of colors. Pinkish peach hibiscus with vivid yellow stamen… green leaves with delicate brownish stripes… two little white flowers with a single pale pink dot in the middle… altogether they really pop against amethyst/purple background. Very interesting!

I think all these little beauties (freshwater pearls and hibiscus lampwork bead) deserve equal attention from anyone who sees them and so this time, I strung them with less Swarovski crystals and extra Bali silver daisy spacers. The outcome? A simple yet elegant piece without loosing its crystal bling!

Click here to see the full picture of the bracelet.

Fresh Start

Finally...

One of my 2009 resolutions is to re-activate this blog that has actually been here awhile thanks to my dear friend Niken who gave me the idea of blogging sometime ago. She has created her own blog at http://www.rumahniken.blogspot.com/ prior to making a similar one for me. She also has two other blogs dedicated to polymer clay and interior designs and both sites are directly linked from the rumahniken blog. Feel free to visit her blogs but I should let you know first that they're written in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language).

Having completed re-designing this blog, I'm pretty happy to be finally able to write something. So here it is.

This short necklace is named Dara's Heart and currently displayed in Beading Daily's Reader Gallery for Heart-Felt Designs theme. The story behind the making of this necklace is what I'd like to share with you. It was last year when my daughter Dara asked me for beads to work with. I immediately gave her one of my favorite lampwork glass beads: a big fluffy heart-shaped focal made by a German artist Andrea Venschott. It has bluish color with hints of white, yellow and green. The color combination is lovely but at that time I decided to stop working with this gorgeous focal bead because I couldn't find matching colors of Swarovski crystals to justify its beauty. Soon after my daughter hold the bead, she quickly chose the complimentary colors of the crystals in various bead sizes and shapes. The result was beyond my expectation! The glitters of light pink and yellow paired with the opaque looks of green mint and chalk white blended nicely with the colors of the focal. Moreover, the variety of sizes and shapes of the crystals gave a dynamic look to the design. I simply couldn't believe myself that my 7-year-old girl created this color mix as she'd never showed her interest in making jewelry pieces. Since then I've occasionally asked her opinion when working on new jewelry designs. Who knows she will come up with a better idea than mine.