Designing A Necklace For Beginners.

If you are thinking of making your own handmade jewellery for the first time it can be quite daunting as there seems to be so much to learn.

The following recommendations may help to ensure your jewellery making is successful and you can find more information to assist you on my handmade jewellery website.

To begin with there are no set rules about how to design a necklace. Every person who makes jewellery will have their own favoured ways of designing.

There are a number of points that are worth considering that can influence the way the your necklace will look, including beading pattern, materials, size, shape and colour of the beads.

Beading pattern generally refers to the placement of the beads on the stringing materials. Traditional beading patterns include symmetrical, asymmentrical, random and repeating.

A random beading pattern needs a theme or colour scheme to ensure that the necklace looks well thought out. The designer is able to use this beading pattern to experiment with different shapes and sizes of beads as well as colours and textures.

The symmetrical beading pattern begins at the centre front or focal bead and the pattern continues equally on both sides of the focal bead.

The asymmetrical beading pattern generally requires a one off large bead to be balanced with smaller beads. In vintage designs the focal bead would normally be placed around the collarbone area.

Repeating bead patterns require a fixed number of beads, possibly of differing sizes or colour, to be repeated along the length of the necklace. To achieve a balanced design the first ‘repeat’ should be placed at the centre front of the necklace.

A necklace can be made up of one or more materials such as semi precious gemstone and metal beads for example.

There is myriad beads to tempt the designer. Beads are made of semi precious gemstones, crystal, pearl, metals, wood, bone or acrylics. They come in many shapes and colours. It can be difficult to actually make a choice of bead to use. Work out before you start when you will wear your necklace, is it for a party, for the office or as a fashion statement? Semi precious gemstones and freshwater pearls are ideal for classical designs, crystal for parties or evening wear and if you want your necklace to make a fashion statement, check out the big fashion house websites to see what they are using for the current season.

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

Once you have decided what beads you are going to use and the colour of your necklace it is very helpful to lay out your design to see what it will look like made up and to ensure that you actually like it. A beadboard is an invaluable tool that will allow your work to be laid out and the resulting necklace considered before the stringing is done and the fastenings attached.

Following the stringing care should be taken to ensure that the necklace is finished off properly and is wearable and durable.

Though I have beaded for years I still rely on laying out my designs on a beadboard to see if I am happy with them and it still astounds me how many times my great ideas do not make it beyond that point!

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