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Wednesday 6 April 2011

April Monthy Blog Topic - Lampwork and ???

Time for another monthly blog topic for the FHFteam blog!
This month's question is

Which jewellery materials do you think pair best with artisan lampwork?

Here's what the team members had to say:

By GaysieMay


GaysieMay: Now this is a tricky one.  I do love to see bright and shiny silver all tumbled and glistening, but then again oxidised and blackened looks good too.  Then there is copper, now copper that has been patinated just sings against certain lampwork beads...

... no I really can't decide!  I just love jewellery and I just love lampwork beads. 


Helbels: Personally I love sterling silver, but I have also seen some beautiful bracelets with slim slices of mother of pearl, and some lovely work with seed beeds too.


Chameleon Designs:  Personally I love lampwork with Silver, both sterling and fine / metal clay. I have seen some gorgeous work done with lampwork and textiles, silk ribbons or leather thongs but there is just something about silver for me.

HelenPetersBeads: Silver works well with most beads as it's 'white' so will naturally go with any colour combination of beads so it's my go to metal. But for particular colours of beads, mainly the blues and greens copper works well, and some of the rosy tones of glass would look great with the rosy copper; then there's brass, all those nimobium (or however it's spelt) coloured jumprings which you can use to make short sections of chain maile to colour co-ordinate with your beads. Then we get onto the dyed leather and other textiles. There's so much to choose from and so many different ways to use them that what started out as a simple answer has turned awfully complicated.
TwirlyBeads: I love sterling silver too.....it just seems to go so well with lampwork beads.  Colour co-ordinated leather looks good, along with silvered ceramic washers for a cheaper alternative.  I like swarovski's for a bit of sparkle and I also like adding semi-precious stones too. 

NemeaDesigns: Only the best will do for lampwork beads. That will be silver and vermeil (gold if I could afford it) and lots and lots and lots of Swarovski Elements (as we must call them now!)

MadCatGlass: Silver and copper both have their own beautiful look, depending on the colour of beads they're teamed with, I think Smiley

I do adore fibre with glass though ... it just adds so much more interest on a textural ( is that a word ?) level.


JosephineWadman: Pearls, semi precious stones, Swarovski's and sterling and Hilltribe silver are my favourites.

VeeBeads: I love finding semi precious stones that match, sometimes it's a real challenge! Silver, copper, swarovski, seed beads and pearls are my favourites, and I have Diane's lovely silk ribbons which I'm tending to hoard, I don't want to cut them up! But they do look stunning with l ampwork 




Grin 


By jowalker68

1 comment:

LesleyW said...

I agree that silver is always good with lampwork but I love copper and bronze. I'm very keen on texture and movement so these pair well with the type of beads I tend to go for. I'm also veering towards big and bold of late and the cost of silver is prohibitive. Brass also takes heat treatment really well and you can get similar but more subtle effects to niobium at a lower cost. As I also use bronze and copper clay I can design metal elements to match beads. I think half the fun is finding other beads and findings that go with lampwork beads but sometimes they just need the minimum of accents to frame the intrinsic artwork.