Sunday, August 28, 2011

Bead Art Jewelry Designs in Vintage Costume Jewelry

I came across this amazing YouTube video about the history of Vintage bead art jewelry on All Earz Jewelry blog. 

I learned a lot in a little over eight minutes, but one thing that stood out for me was the term used by the narrator throughout the video – Bead Art; and believe me as you see the designs you will recognize that not only are these bead art designers unique, but that you just might have a treasure trove of their designs in your jewelry box!

Atlanta Vintage Jewelry is apparently the originator of this video.  Check their website for their current selection of Vintage Bead Art Jewelry and a list of Vintage jewelry suppliers.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

2011 Bead Color Trends: Czech Glass Beads Swarovski Elements

Pantone’s color forecast for Fall / Winter 2011 is spectacular as usual and sure to stimulate some amazing bead art and jewelry designs.

I will elaborate more in another post about what fashion designers are saying about how the 2011 Fall / Winter colors inspired their designs, but for now I wanted to basically give a shout out to some online bead stores that really help bead art jewelry designers by offering the current seasons color palettes for beading.

Pantone Color Chart

I do believe that the availability of Pantone’s colors every season inspires more bead stores to create mixes of color coordinated beads and bead mixes.

I attempted to coordinate beads and bead colors when I first discovered the value of using the Pantone color charts but must admit that I found it a bit overwhelming. So I’m thrilled to find the following information available online.

Preciosa-Ornela website currently offers a bead color palette which seems to coordinate nicely with Pantone’s colors for Fall / Winter 2011.

Phlox, Deep Teal and Bamboo – shown in the above color chart - are the dominant in these Preciosa Bead Fashion Trends News Flash – check out their website for more colors.

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Jesse James Beads is another website that creates bead mixes based on Pantone’s Fashion color palette (currently Fall 2011 not seen online, but it’s still August). Many of their mixes look lovely; however, personally, I would just suggest to be sure to read what makes up their bead mixes as I noticed that they seem to include Czech Glass, Japanese and Chinese beads in the same mix.

Swarovski Elements Crystals and Beads and Pendants are probably one of the best at following every color fashion trend up to two seasons in advance so we certainly want to keep an eye what they have in their Crystal bead pipeline. There are so many sources for Swarovski Crystals, but HarMan Beads is a terrific resource for determining in advance what’s coming in Swarovski Crystal – you’ll probably want to bookmark their webiste.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Trend-Wrap: 4 Bead Art Jewelry Design Fashion Trends To Try

This is an end of season trend wrap of four jewelry fashion trends that I think would look fabulous in beads.

Fall / Winter 2011 Fashion Season is right around the corner but there’s still lots of HOT weather left in most parts of the country to still rock Summer trends.

Along with other sources I really like looking through the trends as forecasted by the Direction Accessories Trend Forecasting (photo’s) report which follows the trends seen on the runways.

I’m sure there’s lots of beautifully designed beaded items already created, and if yours fit any of these trends, please share.

Here’s one item of many highlighted during London Fashion Week categorized as POOF and totally appropriate – as these earrings from House of Holland makes the statement; ‘this kitchy Poof adornment is sure to score some fashion points.  We can't wait to cheer this trend on--with our chic oversized pom-poms in hand, or on our heads, of course!’

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Handcrafted and hand beaded hair accessories, well, there never seems to be enough of a selection.  One material that came to my mind for creating some of the most unique hair accessories is used by Polymer Clay bead artists; I’ve seen such breathtakingly beautiful polymer clay creations which would certainly lend themselves to some amazing handcrafted, hand beaded hair accessories. Again, perhaps I’ve missed what’s already been created, so please share.

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Can it be that wooden beads will come back and make a fashion statement? The wooden accessories pictured below are sure to inspire some amazing pieces. I perused Artfire and Etsy and to my surprise didn’t see much that stood out as a fashion statement which means there’s lots of room for amazing bead art jewelry designs in this category!

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But I think, well know, that my favorite trend is the Friendship Bracelets which,not unlike the Cuff bracelet style which are still amazingly popular, the Friendship bracelet too seems to have staying power.

I love the versatility truly basic design, and also with the many different materials and beads that can be used to create these bracelets bead art jewelry designers are only limited by their creativity! 

Here’s a display of an interesting design selection on this website Polyvore of friendship bracelets:

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Even though we’re wrapping up Spring / Summer 2011 creating with the Seasonal colors as forecasted by Pantone is a terrific way to keep your handcrafted, hand beaded, bead art jewelry designs on trend!

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