Subtle Stripes

Finally “revealed” – the SECRET OF THE SUBTLE STRIPES…

So, this is how I made these (and so far I have not yet found any other colors that look as nice…maybe YOU can experiment and let me know!)

1. make a tiny (!!!!!) donut-shaped bead in light or dark ivory (the look of the bead will be slightly different)

2. add 4 large dots of INK BLUE. make sure that there is still ivory visible between the dots. The larger these dots, the prettier the result – because with smaller dots too much of the ivory core will show. Also, if you use DARK ivory for your core, the ivory may bleed onto the encasing layer if there is too much left of it!

3. in the interval between the ink blue dots, add 4 large dots in light or dark aqua (again, the result will be different!) – make sure that the aqua OVERLAPS the ink blue on both sides of the dot.

4. Melt the dots flush with the surface (a small bead could already be done at this point, but a layer of encasing accentuates the colors and the effect, because it pulls the dots outwards into “stripes”)

5. Encase! (there will always be a core of ivory showing, which is why I always sell these beads WITH the sterling silver beadcaps!