Thursday, June 4, 2015

Variations on a Theme

By Sherri Stokey
Micro macrame bracelets with Mexican red snowflake jasper.

Some of my best ideas just sort of morph into being.  I know that sounds odd, but let me give you an example.  A customer asked me to feature some Mexican Red Snowflake Jasper beads in a micro macrame bracelet.  If you know me at all, you know that red is my Kryptonite.  It's just so hard for me to work into a design that feels right *insert whining here*.  But the customer is always right and the show must go on and all that stuff, so I found an image I felt might inspire me and pulled some beads and cord to match.

Red paisley color palette with seed beads and nylon bead cord.

*Shudder*  Just look at all those warm colors!  I made a bracelet using these from this pile, and it was fine.

Macrame bracelet by Sherri Stokey.

Fine, but it wasn't speaking to me.  I tried, people.  I tried to get the red to speak to me, but it was definitely giving me the silent treatment.  So I went back to the drawing board and pulled out some beads that were talking to me to act as interpreters.

Turquoise beads and cord.

It's turquoise to the rescue (okay, okay - sort of sagey green if you want to get technical about it).  I threw it into the mix and made another bracelet, and this time it sang to me!

Red jasper macrame bracelet with turquoise.

I probably never would have had the idea to create this piece from scratch.  The idea came gradually, step by step.  Evolved.

Micro macrame bracelets by Sherri Stokey.

This is a technique I use often.  I think it's because I'm curious.  I make a bracelet like this:

Micro macrame bracelet in deep blue and marigold.

Then I wonder what it would look like if I switched out the marigold for another color and before I know it, I have a coral, a chartreuse and a lilac version:

Micro macrame bracelet in deep blue and different accent colors.

I also like to use the very same pattern and the same beads, but switch up the cord colors:

Micro macrame bracelets with different cord colors.

Remember this next time you think something isn't turning out quite the way you want.  Maybe you just need to let the idea steep a bit.  Maybe if you let the ideas develop, you'll get right where you want to be!

2 comments:

stacilouise said...

I love color play- and I agree, that first red one needed that contrast to make it POP!

Good things come from the question "what if".......

Donna Sharp Geurin said...

Yes the turquoise is the perfect color to speak up. It is so fasinating when you start playing with colors and they always seem to end up perfect. Thank you for the lesson in color.

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