Accident Prone Jewelry Design

I’m often asked by customers how I come up with my designs. For the most part, they come about by one of two ways — the beads speak to me, or completely by accident.

When I say “the beads speak to me”, I don’t mean in a spooky, “I see dead people” way. What I mean is, when I see a particular strand of beads, I almost immediately visualize what I can do with them. First come the beads, and the design follows.

My favorite way of creating, though, is accidental designing. I love being accident prone. The best way to be accident prone is to have a messy work space. The more beads you have occupying your space, the more chances you have of a collision happening.

Here’s an example.

I bought a stellar set of lampwork beads in my favorite colors, pink and purple. I thought I had it in my mind what I was going to do — a lush, full, cha-cha charm bracelet that was strung, full of sterling silver and crystal.

The same day the beads arrived in the mail, a packet of copper orchid charms arrived. They ended up carelessly heaped next to each other on the table. I glanced over, and oh wow. They HAD to go together, and RIGHT NOW!

This happened from that crash-bang-boom accident:

It’s not strung, it’s certainly not silver, but I couldn’t be more pleased. So even though I had a wonderful idea in my head, being accident prone can work out to be the path to the best designs.

Lori Anderson designs and blogs from her studio in Easton, MD. You can buy her work at her website, Etsy, and craft shows, and read more about her at her blog.