Artbeads: Blogging for Spring

Yes, Spring is finally here!  It's everywhere right now and it's lovely! Spring means my rose garden is full of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen - and their smells are heavenly!  When artbeads announced that it's next assignment for bloggers was "Spring" - well I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use these gorgeous roses as my inspiration. 

Searching Artbeads.com for beads in soft colors to match my roses was easy,....choosing which ones I actually wanted, wasn't!  I love pearls - being the pearl geek that I am - and they also put off a soft glow, just like my roses.  I wanted to give the Swarovski Crystal Pearls a chance this time too, since they come is such great colors, so I chose both  freshwater, cultured pearls and some Swarovski's, too.  The cultured, freshwater stick pearls I chose arrived and I was a tad bit disappointed with them because they all didn't have the great luster and sheen that I'd hoped for and there were a few 'dark black' patches in the nacre (yes, I'm pretty critical when it comes to grading cultured pearls!!) but over all, they were better than some I've seen at many other stores. They really did bring a more natural and organic feel to my necklace and like the actual roses themselves, they were not with out blemishes, and sometimes that's what makes things so beautiful and special - because they're not absolutely perfect!

I decided I wanted a hand knotted necklace this time and found the perfect color of griffin silk to knot my pearls on. To liven the piece up a bit, I needed some sparkle and what better way to say sparkle than with a few Swarovski crystals!  And, I needed a clasp that was bursting with style for my spring design, and I found this star shaped toggle clasp to be the perfect match! 

I chose to do a sort of "tin-cup" style of knotting so the emphasis would be on the beads themselves and I also wanted make the necklace long enough to wrap around and wear it as a double strand - or you can just wear a simple tank and have one long, luscious necklace!

The end result is quite romantic - like love in bloom I guess you could say.  The necklace itself is a respresentation of things gently awakening in spring,...waiting to bring forth the more vibrant summer energy!

Until next time,

Peace, Love and all things SPRING!

cheers,

~Shel~

The items specifically referenced from ArtBeads.com were provided free of charge as promotional gifts for review and/or design partnership purposes only.

No monetary compensation has been provided.