Bead Jewelry 2008 Summer Fashion Trends
Summer is here and the heat is on for bead jewelry artists to make their beaded jewelry appealing and fun and right in line with the rest of this summer’s hottest fashions! Whether you’re making bead jewelry to sell at a craft show or buying some jewelry for vacation at the beach, here are some of the things you’ll find in bead jewelry:
Big and Bright: Shiny metal is fading but big showy colorful glass beads, faux gems and even real gemstones are still in for the summer. Chunky jewelry is still popular, but with slightly smaller beads than were popular last year. This summer it isn’t about big beads as much as it is about big and bright colors!
Keep it Natural and Green: Anything natural or advertised as “green” is really, really big this year. Any sort of bead jewelry resembling plants or animals are still popular from what I’ve seen. I’ve noticed more people asking me about beads that are made out of renewable or natural materials, apparently over the concern of plastic beads eventually filling landfills.
Silver is It: With the skyrocketing cost of gold a lot of people are forgoing making jewelry out of anything with gold because it’s too valuable to wear anymore! Instead the shiny metal of choice for many bead jewelry projects is silver or silver-toned. Even more popular than silver in many cases are fabric and leather cords, especially when mixed with natural elements.
Far East Influence: Anything that has an exotic or foreign feel to it, real or not, is still very popular in bead jewelry. Asian looking medallions, Indian designs and even Native American artwork all mixed with the natural wood and stone beads that are larger than normal are all very popular. Lately bright and colorful gemstones have been appearing beside dark muted wood beads that appear to be hand cut in a lot of bead jewelry pieces used in magazines and fashion shoots.
Non-Traditional Materials: Just as you could almost never find anything Oriental in bead jewelry five years ago, you also couldn’t find anything other than traditional beads. This year things are really changing. A lot of people are mixing everyday items such as hardware pieces, electronic parts and other non-traditional materials from around the home and office into bead jewelry. If it can be drilled and strung on a wire you’ll see it in bead jewelry.
Overall the summer of 2008 is looking to be bright and fun time that leaves open a lot of possibilities for all you bead-a-holics out there!
Visit http://www.beadjewelryblog.com to discover more bead jewelry ideas, beading news, bead sales, beading tutorials and beading business advice.
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