Anatomy of a Design - Part II

At the same show, I also picked up some strands of dyed shell disks in two shades of pink and two different sizes. Those went into the same shopping bag with the silver disks, although at the time, I had no thought of using them together. I just bought the pink shell disks because I like pink and hey, they were only $2.00 a strand!

So, this brings me to last night. I’ve already gotten out the large metal disks and I know I’m going to hook them on to chain. I start matching the disks to different pieces of chain I have in stock to get just the right look and all of a sudden the word “bellydancer” just pops into my head. Yeah, weird, I know, but bear with me here.

There have been a lot of what I call “bellydancer” influences in fashion lately from ethnic printed tunics and tops to lots of gold and chain pieces. I’m starting to picture the edge of a dancer’s veil with all the disks on it clanking with smaller pieces intermixed. Coincidentally, I had to get the pink shell disks out of the shopping bag to get to the metal disks so I had a chance to see them together. I liked the way the shapes were similar and hey, circles are hot in fashion right now, too. Plus, I haven’t made anything pink for a while so okay, I’ll mix the shell disks in with the large silver disks.

I start wire-wrapping the shell disks onto the chain in between the larger silver disks and I sprinkle in some of the smaller silver disks as accents. I like the mixture of elements but I quickly realize I’ve got a serious problem. The large silver disks are so big that they’re obscuring the pink shell beads. Rats!

Now, here’s my most very secret trick – how to turn laziness into a design tool that works for you! I’ve already wire-wrapped half the necklace and I really, really, really don’t want to have to re-do that. Not to mention that it means having to cut up and waste all those sterling silver headpins. But, the large silver disks are not wire-wrapped onto the chain. They’re hanging from jump rings. Which are easy to open and won’t be destroyed by being re-used. Hooray!

I quickly replace all of the large disks with small ones and now the design is coming together. Still, it’s just pink and silver and seems too monochromatic which is a design trap I often fall into. So, I need some other colors. But, I don’t want this design to get TOO wild in the color dept. thus the need for something fairly neutral. It seems to need a bit of “sparkle” as well.

Truthfully, I tend to think MOST things need a bit of sparkle. That’s probably why I used to use a hair mousse with gold glitter in it when I was in my 20’s. And yes, I wore it in the daytime, too. {Hangs head in shame} What can I say? I survived the 80’s, but the scars run deep ;-)

But I digress…

See Part III