Creative Collaborations

I like to give Beadalon's education director, Wyatt White, a hard time about the huge mess he makes anytime he's demonstrating new products at shows. But, the truth is, sometimes a mess can work to your advantage! At CHA last month, I picked up a piece of chain he'd been working on and it inspired me to create this matching wire-wrapped pendant.

Collaborating on a project is a great way to infuse new color palettes, techniques and other ideas into your work. I can't guarantee that you'll find anything as gorgeous as Wyatt's chain in any old pile of leftovers, but I do recommend trading with a friend. Round robins, Internet swaps and bead soup nights are all easy ways to get your own creative collaborations going!

In case you're wondering about our design: Wyatt used 16-gauge Artistic Wire to make silver S-hooks. He also made twisted jump rings from 16-gauge gold and 18-gauge silver. He connected double S-hooks between jump rings. For the pendant, I banded three 16-gauge silver wires together in three places using 16-gauge gold then folded them upward around the stone and banded them at the top. You can get great instructions on stone setting in Wyatt's book, Wire Wrapping Components & Stone Setting.