Think of funky jewellery and you see dangling and twirling, brightly-coloured beads on a string before your mind’s eye. While expensive gold and silver are used for traditional wear, the young and daring ones choose to make a strong fashion statement with costume jewellery that is trendy and casually elegant. From a simple string of matching beads to garish, wooden, carved and odd shaped ones, beads offer a whole new range of fashion jewellery to choose from. Anklets, bangles, bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings and jewellery for adorning the hair can be created with a mix and match of different kinds of beads.
The art of hand-crafting beads and creating ornaments from them has been around for ages. Some of the most exquisite beaded jewellery is found in India from the time of the Maharajas.
Nowadays a vast variety of beads are made using glass, wood, plastic, shell, bone, horn, clay, paper, papier mache, resin and seeds. Gold, silver, copper, bronze, and brass beads are combined with colourful, semi-precious gemstone beads to give one a majestic look. Gemstone beads such as garnets, ruby, opal, emerald and aquamarine are also in demand. Pearl, ivory and coral are also used for making unique jewellery. Sparkling Swarovski and Preciosa lead-crystal beads are used to get a world-class designer look.
Perfectly rounded beads are passé. Spherical, oval, flat, diamond shaped, tetragonal, cylindrical, bugled and Charlotte cut beads are used to design trendy ornaments. Beads are further embellished by painting, varnishing, using glitter or engraving. Besides opaque, transparent and translucent beads are also available in pastel and watery shades, bold, bright and fluorescent colours as well as glossy or matte finish metallic hues.
Designing bead jewellery demands a lot of prowess, creativity, imagination and dexterity. Indian jewellery uses precious and semi precious beads in traditional designs, either as part of the string as in necklaces and bangles or as danglers. Combining different shapes of beads in contrasting shades and patterns creates very interesting designs.
With jewellery designing kits available in the market, children and teens with a desire to be different can be inspired to fashion their own jewellery with plastic beads and strings. These baubles and trinkets can be fashioned and refashioned over and over again. With the desire for endless variety of jewellery, beaded jewellery is a sure hit among fashion conscious people.
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