DIY Necklaces Design

If you are just starting to make jewellery you should be aware that there are no hard and fast rules about how to design your jewellery. There are however a number of considerations you could take into account to help you to achieve a pleasing design.

These include a beading pattern, the size, shape and colour of the beads.

A necklace is a focal piece of jewellery and it is usually the first place we start when making jewellery. When creating a necklace you need to be aware that it can be made up of one or more materials such as the classic combination of crystals and pearls or semi precious gemstones and precious metal, including gold, silver or copper. You will also need to incorporate a beading pattern and consider the colour of the beads you are to use.

Beading Patterns

There are four traditional beading patterns:- asymmetrical, random, repeating and symmetrical.

The random beading pattern will allow you as the designer to experiment with different sizes and shapes of beads as well as colours and textures. It is very important to develop a theme or colour scheme such as 'Spring Flowers' for example, the beads will be pastel greens and pinks, to ensure the necklace looks well thought out.

Symmetrical necklace designs begin at the centre front or focal bead and the pattern continues equally up both sides of the focal bead. Even though the design is symmetrical in placement on the stringing material it does not mean that you can not use different sized or colour beads for interest.

Asymmetrical designs generally need to balance a one off large focal bead, or an ornate fastener placed to the front, with smaller beads. Quite often the focal bead would be placed around the collarbone area in vintage necklaces.

To create a repeating pattern design, a fixed number of beads, possibly of differing sizes or colours, is repeated throughout the length of the necklace. In order to achieve a balanced design the first 'repeat' should be placed at the centre front of the necklace and repeated up either side.

Materials

The materials from which beads are made are numerous and include semi precious gemstones, metals such as Sterling Silver, Copper or Gold filled, fresh water pearls, wood and bone as well as manmade including crystal and acrylics.

Colour

The effect of colour on the design is considerable. Necklaces can be one block of colour or made up of contrasting or complimentary colours.

And Finally!

A beadboard is a very useful tool that will allow your work to be laid out first and the resulting necklace to be considered before the stringing is done and the fasteners attached.

Once stringing is completed great care should be taken to ensure the necklace is finished off properly and it is wearable and durable.