Inspiration to Design Jewellery & Moonstone for May

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Hope you had a good Easter. Don't eat eggs: make jewellery! If you're in the UK, please visit us for a MrBead bag & a free gift at one of our bead fairs during April, May or June. Starting TODAY, Sunday 27th April 2014 at Beads Up North, Haydock Race Course - for details click here. All our 2014 fairs here.

Inspiration to Design Jewellery
How to Design Jewellery
Magical Moonstone for May
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Inspiration to Design Jewellery

Where to find Inspiration
You want to design a new jewellery piece, but how do you get the creativity flowing to come up with a wave of ideas? Creativity stems from within. Your brain stores everything you have seen and experienced - ideas spring from these memories. You already have millions of designs imbedded in your mind. The problem is getting them out! Never underestimate your own creativity.

Think new to create new
Rearrange your mind in every way you can - if you always think along the same lines, you’ll end up with the same ideas. Live life more

If you get stuck - paint with a different brush!

Think new to create new
Rearrange your mind in every way you can - if you always think along the same lines, you’ll end up with the same ideas. Build your creativity by collecting ideas all the time. Look at many different designs, online and offline. Talk with customers and other designers. The smallest thing can spark a new idea. Inspiration comes from many sources apart from jewellery – especially the latest fashions in various forms. Try different experiences and travel more. The more diverse or the further traveled the better.

Analyze why some pieces of jewellery draw your attention, while others look dull. Is it because one element is emphasized over another? Is it a play of colour or shape? Does the design resemble something fashionable?

From a basic frame, experiment arranging beads in different ways, using shape, colour and stone to produce striking design. As long as the overall effect has harmony, it will look attractive.

Sometimes you’re bursting with ideas and making jewellery faster than t-shirts leave shop windows at the start of cold weather - but other times you get designers block and can’t think further than your last necklace. What you need is lots of inspiration and a little motivation.

Motivation may be a craft fair, jewellery on famous people, or even a big bill you need to raise funds to pay. Artistic inspiration may not be so obvious. You need to get your head outside the box. Walk with a notebook recording your observations. Take a digital camera. What are people wearing? Try these ideas:

Study what’s in the window of your local boutiques – the colours, patterns, what draws your attention? Look for new trends or what others make of designs similar to your own. Record everything, don’t trust to memory.
Look into the past to see the future. Go to the library and checkout books on the history of jewellery and fashion. Visit museums and old houses, gardens, flea markets and art galleries.
Examine detail of nature – patterns and colours of flower petals, leafs, animals, rocks and things on the beach. Take macro photographs. Look up to the stars and down into a microscope.
Talk to others about design and styles. Join as many local craft groups as you can and bounce off ideas together. Don’t hide anything - be open and helpful and you will find others will reciprocate.
Travel more. Often, the further you go, the more opportunity. Especially in other countries. Explore different cultures – their colours, designs, clothing and architecture. Out-of-the-way places not so far from home can also be inspiring. Areas not polluted by commercialism. On your return, take a large sheet of paper and write numbered headings of your observations from the notes and photos. Elaborate and expand each main point.
If the veins running on a leaf look interesting, draw a sketch to remind you of a choker design. Perhaps the colours and pattern on a totem pole draw your attention – this could be a new necklace. Or the side-section of a garden rock reminds you to make an agate bracelet.
These are just a few of the many ideas you can conjure with a brain storming session. The point is to investigate as much diversity as you can imagine, record it as detailed as you can, and then analyze everything when you get back home. Then when you go to sell your new jewellery, use the source of inspiration to help sell your design!

How to Design Jewellery

Most of you are expert jewellery designers, but going back to basics can inspire your imagination. You’ll get a lot of pleasure out of using fashion sense and creativity to make beaded jewellery – but if it's new to you, how to start, and then how do you improve your skill?

How to Start
Some beginners find a bead loom is the easiest way to begin. Sketch your design on graph paper and select the beads you want to use for the project. Match the colour of beads to the colour you draw on paper. If you don’t want to buy a lot of beads and tools that will be left over, purchase a bead making kit for just one project.

Many start using patterns online or from magazines. Then after gaining experience making a few items, they experiment with ideas of their own. Leaf through fashion magazines and learn current trends. Make notes when you see anything appealing, like a model wearing earrings that go well with her sweater. Then work with your pieces to create a variation on the look.

Colour
Choice the colour of your necklace first, and then match earrings or other jewellery around this. Blend colours that are similar, contrasting colour seldom works. Aim for harmony and it will please the eye. However, learn how to use a colour wheel to create effects with stunning combinations too.

Size of Beads
To help decide on the size of beads to use, liken designing to a flower arrangement – start with the larger flowers first, then fill in with smaller ones. Bearing in mind the design must be functional and practical to wear.

Balance
Balancing jewellery is more an art than a science - however, certain guidelines generally apply:

Avoid symmetry & even numbers together.
It’s OK and good to use different types of beads in one design – like crystals, pearls and gemstones combined in one piece.
Your design should feel good to the eye.
All the elements in the design should be in harmony and complement each other.
Think of this harmony as yin & yang, large & small, light & dark etc.
If you use a focal bead, it must stand out drawing attention.

Findings
Use findings like spacers, bead caps, and jump rings creatively. These can add style and professionalism to your design. If your jewellery is to a theme, match the spacer beads and findings.

Start with a Frame
The basic elements of design outlined above are your building blocks. Use them as your starting point from which to alter the design into something from your heart. They’ll ensure your produce powerful jewellery.

How do I know I have a Good Design?

The successful jewellery design fits into the overall market - yet is distinctive enough to influence browsers to purchase

A well designed piece moves with the body, feels good to wear, and looks pleasing and harmonious to the eye. A necklace should drape nicely and it must feel right. The design should be creative, yet within the boundaries of wear-ability, and it must appeal to the customer or it won't sell.

MrBead has hundreds of different spacer beads and findings at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com

Magical Moonstone: May’s gemstone

Moonstone is nature’s treasure with a sensuous and seductive charm. The characteristic feature is its magical play of light. Moonstone is translucent, and softens the light shining through it to give a pearly moon-like glow which appears different whenever the stone changes position. Years ago, it was thought to be brought upon by the moon’s phases. This shimmering affect is caused by light being refracted inside the stone.

Colours
Moonstone comes in colourless, white, grey, and subtle yellow, but always has a blue or white sheen. Rainbow moonstone is colourless with a blue sheen and a rainbow-like array of colours.

Moonstone folklore
Much mystery surrounds this stone. In India it’s considered sacred to lovers, and is also known as a “dream stone” bringing beautiful dreams. In Arab countries women often were moonstone sewn into their garment as a symbol of fertility. It was also believed to be especially protective to seafarers, who have been using it since ancient times. During full-moon, moonstone is very powerful for reconciling love - and as the moon decreases, is said to allow one to foretell the future.

A feminine stone for female issues and the inner-child, but also used by men who want to reach their feminine side. Moonstone brings confidence, calms the emotions, and aids spirituality, intuition, and clairvoyance. Also thought to protect against fever, fluid-retention and urinary problems. Its soft shine supports the emotional and dreamy side of a person. Wearing moonstone will also increase your sensitivity for others.

Natural moonstone
Classical moonstone from Sri Lanka shimmers pale blue and is expensive. Moonstone from India has a cloud-like plays of light on beige, brown, green, or orange backgrounds – and some have a cat’s eye or a multi-rayed star.

Uncut moonstone is dull and lacks the play of light. This is brought out by the cutter’s skills, who must locate the stone’s axis. Classical moonstones are always cut as cabochons.

Value
The more intense the colour, the larger and more transparent the stone, the more valuable is the gem. Really top quality fine blue moonstone shows an incredible “three-dimensional” depth of colour, which you will see clearly only when tilting. Such specimens are rare and expensive. Brighter coloured Indian moonstones are usually less expensive, so are opalite moonstone.

Opalite moonstone
Opalite moonstone is most common today. This is a synthetic stone looking similar to genuine moonstone, that's only been around recently. Against a light background, it appears milky white, shimmering golden faint lilac-blue and other colours. Against a darker background, it changes to a bright icy blue with the highlights altering to intense oranges and reds. The stone practically glows on its own, and demands attention by outshining all around.

Opalite moonstone adds a romantic feminine allure to your jewellery, always looking refreshingly cool - ideal for summer. Its pastel glow is soft and captivating, complimenting other light-coloured stones like lilac amethyst, blue chalcedony, and rose quartz. It also loves to compete with wild bright colours like reds and turquoise. This flamboyance makes opalite ideal to wear during a night out on the town.

Looking after moonstone
All moonstone is fragile and should be handled carefully. However, a jeweller can polish a dulled moonstone back to its original glory.

We have over 45 different opalite moonstones - to see all click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk

See us in the UK for a Free Gift!

After being shut away in a little office reading and sending e-mails, we love to see customers!

Visit us in the UK and say you're a MrBead Newsletter reader, and we'll give you a MrBead bag & a free gift!

Sunday 27th April 2013 - Beads up North! Haydock Race Course, Newton-le-Willows WA12 0HQ
Sunday 4th May 2014 - The Doncaster Bead Fair - Holiday Inn [A1(M) J36], High Road, Warmsworth, Doncaster DN4 9UX
Sunday 11th May 2014 - Norwich MrBead Bead Show with The Bead Queen - George Hotel, Arlington Lane, Norwich NR2 2DA
Saturday 17th May 2014 - The Luton MrBead Bead Show - Stockwood Hotel, Stockwood Crescent, Luton LU1 3SS
Sunday 18th May 2013 - The North East Bead Show - Holiday Inn, Great North Road, Seaton Burn, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE13 3BP
Sunday 1st June 2013 - Cheshire Bead Fair - Nantwich Civic Hall CW5 5DG
Sat & Sun 7th-8th June 2014 - Gem 'n' Bead Fair, Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury, London TW16 5AQ

We will also be calling at some beading groups. If you would like us to call on your group, please e-mail or tweet Nigel, or phone after 24th April 07576134264.

For details of all our 2014 bead fairs click here
See a video of some of our past bead fairs

$10 or £6 Discount Coupon

For $10 or £6 off anything in our bead stores, key code MOONSTONE in the box at checkout, and click "Redeem Coupon". Act NOW as offer only valid until Friday 2nd May 2014.

Only for use in our main bead stores at the below links, NOT for eBay or our MarketWorks store.

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