Maybe my analogy isn't very apt, but the basic nugget bracelet is what I sell the most of; I think of the nugget bracelet as the "meat and potatoes" jewelry although if you look at the pink rhodonite bracelet to the left with the smooth oval nuggets and Bali white sterling silver, meat and potatoes may not be what comes to mind. But it is a favorite - and even when it is plainer - no sterling silver other than a clasp perhaps. But most designers savour what I am calling the "French cuisine" of the bead jewelry world: the assymetrical piece that may mix colours, textures, types of stones, cuts of stones, and even stones of different quality so that the end result is a bracelet that really is "one of a kind."
First, the ruby and lampwork bead bracelet here mixes genuine natural ruby rounds in a loosely braided strand that curves around forming about 65 % of the bracelet; the artists' lampwork beads are by Burt and Scott Gumeson of Gumeson Designs.
The rubies are a darker purplish colour, so the lampwork with its glowing white bumps on an amethyst colour is perfect. Three Swarovski crystal rondelles in amethyst provide interest on one side of the lampwork (the 3 large lampwork beads are sandwiched between Turkish sterling silver filigree) and a smaller plain dark purple lampwork bead is on the other side. Bali beaded accents join with Turkish silver and Karen Hill Tribe (from Thailand) charms and beads and ruby dangles so that opposite the clasp there is a charm bracelet effect. The clasp, a round lobster clasp latches onto one of a number of links in a large link sterling silver chain, so that the bracelet is adjustable.
Finally, in answer to an "Orange Challenge" the International Jewelry Guild was holding (which I didn't get to enter because of family circumstances), I bought the small lampwork beads in cobalt and orange from Laffingull beads. I still made my bracelet though after the challenge ended. One strand of this bracelet features wirework and sterling silver chain. A couple of Laguna Botswana agates are thrown into the mix of carnelian heishi, rondelles, and little charms - all accented by sterling silver. The larger strand has the lampwork beads grouped together (the cobalt blue really pops!), more heishi, rondelles, a carved rectangular bead, a large unformed nugget, a translucent faceted rondelle, and a great carved round bead - all looking great with groups of sterling silver beads and rondelles around them.
I've been told that you wouldn't want to eat French cuisine everyday (I don't believe it though) and that people would yearn for meat and potatoes after such fine fare (maybe not us vegetarians), so while I love to experiment and mix, I still have a large inventory of nugget bracelets.
The
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Combining turquoise with rust, orange and red and especially sterling silver or giving a rough edge to a gemstone otherwise associated with a more refined or sophisticated milieu (such as rubies or tourmalines cut into rough nuggets) I've come to call the "Canyone Aesthetic." The first bracelet illustrates the "Canyon Aesthetic" with turquoise and silver paired with lampwork beads in the canyon colours then mixed with very eenly faceted red aventurine barrels and the more sophisticated matching earrings with an ornate sterling silver chandelier base and the same regularly faceted stones. As sterling silver has supplanted gold according to the preferences of a younger generation in the last few years, we see more and more of the Canyon Aesthetic. It is a style of jewelry that is replacing the idea of Southwestern as turquoise and silv
er, the elaborate "Squash Blossom", and the tackier geegaws created for the tourist trade.
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