Customized Pieces: Flowers & Butterflies

A client of ours, who loves to accessorize and collect original handmade jewellery, recently asked us to customize statement necklace for her. The design’s theme revolved around clustered flowers and butterflies. She also specified us to use, predominantly; the colors red, yellow, peach, and pink for the florwers while royal blue, magenta, fuchsia, yellow and apple green for the butterfly.  After several sketches, we were finally able to design two pieces:  

A challenge that we always face in bead embroidery design is how to give the piece texture. It’s an element of design that stops our creations from getting a “flat” look. Along with maintaining a proper balance between color combinations and texture; we always make sure that our pieces “come to life” in accordance with what our client wants.

To give the flower cluster piece texture, I decided to use flower brooches. First, I removed the pins from the original stock of brooches. I then used the flower part of the brooch to embellish the handmade statement necklace. This is a very tedious process, especially if you’re sewing the brooches, individually, by hand. However, we were very pleased with what came out:

For the butterfly-inspired statement pieces, we went back to the basics, in that we used simple craft beads as the main component for the necklace. The challenge in using craft beads meanwhile is how to make the piece glamorous, while using base materials. We achieved by subtly placing a few pieces of crystals to the entire piece. This slight addition greatly enhances the effect of the craft beads:

Lastly, we improved our finishing by using faux leather instead of the usual satin or suede/ felt cloth, to cover the back.

It’s a difficult task to envision and design a piece that’s supposed to adhere to another person’s aesthetics and style. It’s even more difficult to execute. Finding the right material, colors, and blending them together is a painful process in itself. Even with all that effort, at the end of the day, your client might even reject it. However, we view this entire process as a form of collaborating and learning. We believe that experience is life’s best teacher; and it’s always a soulful experience to see beauty through the eyes of another.

Keeping it real. - PJV