Color Inspiration: Tropical Foliage

Wire Jewelry Article for May 10th, 2017

This month’s Color Inspiration photo was a vacation snap shot of a garden on St. Kitts. Tropical foliage is so trendy right now and the shapes and colors are a timeless source of inspiration.

For this necklace I wanted to play with rows of colorful beads to mimic the motif of the lush leaves. I took 20 gauge wire and created a loop at the top with two wires coming down, they remind me of the loops on safety pins. I strung on my beads, mixing a variety of sizes, textures and colors, repeating the pattern on each wire. I trimmed the wire and hammered the bottoms into paddles to hold the beads and filed each paddle.

Be careful when hammering wire with glass beads, I had to redo several due to a wayward swing! I used brass colored copper wire, which is plated wire. The hammering exposed the copper underneath, I loved the look of the metal transitioning from copper to brass. To finish my design, I wire-wrapped the pendant with two accent beads and strung everything on 2mm leather in a dark leafy green color. I tied the leather with adjustable knots to keep my options open for the length of the necklace.

You can’t go wrong with color palettes when Mother Nature is the designer. Green and purple are a natural match, when you use such a limited color palette, be sure to mix in varying shades of the colors to keep the design interesting.

In addition to beads you might have on hand, we have a wide selection of Gemstone Beads and Glass Beads  that can be used for this project as well.

Tools: Round nose pliers, wire cutters, steel bench block, ball peen hammer, metal file.

2 Comments

1. 

   Connie MacDonald

   May 10, 2017 at 8:06 am

   Very nice. It reminds me of the rain forest on St. Lucia
2. 

   Ashley

   May 17, 2017 at 6:15 pm

   Awesome necklace. Could you let me know where you obtained the tiger pendant? I looked on this site and did not see anything similar. Really love it and beautiful choice for this necklace. Thanks.