Canyon Sunrise Necklace Collar

The Powers of Crystal Beads Unleashed

My Crystallized Allure COLLECTION relies on creative layering and positioning of crystal beads, in an effort to maximize the brilliant rush and felt sensuality as the crystal colors reach the eye and reverberate throughout the mind.

Crystal beads create many challenges for the jewelry artist. Your eye/brain tends to want to blend crystal bead colors, rather than see different colors distinctly. Your eye/brain is more attracted to the brightness, and may too easily ignore the color pattern, forms, or intentions of the piece as a whole. Crystal beads come in many, many colors, but the colors don't share tonal and hue values, making many of them difficult to combine in a pleasing way.

To add to the challenge, crystal beads have very sharp holes, and too easily cut the stringing material. This often limits some more complex arrangements of beads, particularly using bead weaving techniques, because the jewelry can too easily break down when worn.

In my Crystallized Allure pieces, I like to create unexpected mixes of colors. I like to use various techniques to create more distinct boundaries between and among colors -- fighting that eye/brain tendency to blend them. I play with both bead weaving and bead stringing techniques within the same piece. I frequently incorporate various glass, metal and/or gemstone pieces with the crystal beads in playful and fun ways.

I prefer to use FireLine cable thread as my stringing material. Because of the sharp holes of crystal beads, I heavily reinforce the stringing patterns.

--- Warren Feld