Autumn Inspiriations

Hello!

So, as we are slowly approaching the end of 2017, I thought I would look at one of the my personal favourite times of the year, Autumn! (and not just because my birthday's in October!) 

Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year, as we pull away from the sweltering heat of the summer into the cooler and brisk airs of the season. As a child, I fondly remember jumping into huge crispy leaf piles with my two sisters, running around outside while the strong wind pulled at my  coat and scarf before going home red faced and happy to drink warm juice and watch the last of the reds, yellows and browns scatter around the garden as the final leaves were taken from the tree. To me, it's a beautiful time of the year and so why not be inspired by it for this Blog?

(As usual links for all the items and tutorials will be found on the page - Simply click the image to bring you to the specific item or the link underneath for the tutorial!)

This blog will focus on a few but amazing creations from crafters across all corners of the internet - so grab your warm drink and dive into this technicolour of design for Autumn that will leaf you creative and falling over with inspiration (not sorry for the amazing puns!)

"Eye Pendant with stones, Rainbow colors- Wire Wrapping stones 164" available on YouTube

So inspired by the leaves themselves,  I thought I would look into some designs inspired specifically by the colours, tones and their various Shapes for this. I looked around for some simple designs and found a truly inspiring piece on YouTube by the creator Lan Anh Handmade who creates a wire woven leaves adorned with coloured beads and attached together to create pendants, earrings and other jewellery simple but beautifully elegant jewellery pieces. 

Her tutorial, which has full descriptions and subtitles, gives you an oversight on how to create these chic earrings. Using bronze coloured eyepins, Lan bends them into a simple tear dropped leaf shape with a overlapping wire end laid over the front of the earring to allow you fit additional beads onto the wire. Using additional eye pins, she creates these drop pins to attach the leaves onto to create a chandellier of wire and beads for a Autumn inspired creation. 

This design is extremely straight forward and requires only a few Tools and materials, making it extremely beginner friendly.  The shape of the leaf created allows you further embellish the design for your own creations - for example instead of attaching each of the leaves seperately on their jump rings, why not wire the leaves together in multiple colours to create a smart and eye catching drop pendant matched with a gold chain for a complete inspirational piece? - meaning that you can easily adapt and change for personal tastes, or even for that special someone. 

"How to make Russian Leaves" by Jill Wiseman (Youtube)

Now for the beaders! (This is a beading blog after all!) For some beaded alternative designs for the hands on creator, we have some intricate "Russian Leaves"  There are hundreds of tutorials avaliable on Blog sites, YouTube and across the internet but the basics of a Russian Leaf is simple - it's a peyote stitched bead set with a number of coloured Seed beads woven into a simple V formation that, when the two open ends are sewn and beaded together, creates a glittering three-dimensional leaf with a raised and stand out effect

Jill Wiseman on her YouTube channel has one of the best examples and tutorials for Russian Leaves as her guide, which walks the creator through step by step, breaks down the fundementals of the Russian leaves, and tips and tricks for the perfect finish.  Once you have the fundementals down to a tee, she has created other additional videos to help embellish the designs further with additional strength and stability (link can be found here) adding additional beads to create the leaf "vains" (found here) and even sewing together multiple leaves to create a custer, perfect for earrings or pendants. I especially like her use of colour in the designs, as she uses different colour of bead to give a beautiful complimentary colour pallette which is straight-froward to copy. (Bronze leaf with a Silver beaded border) 

Editoral Note: *There are several tutorials on Russian leafs which involve a different number of colours and and stitching (such St. Petersburgs stitching) but once you have the initial foundations you can easily recreate and adapt the design for your own design influences from adding additonal beads or wire wrapping to make each piece personal and unqiue. 

(Assorted Colours) Frosted Glass Leaf Charm Pendants Wired 15mm PK5

If your inspired by the leaves and foliage for your designs but want to look at other matierals, why not have a look into our extensive range of frosted glass, wood and metal leaf charms and pendants? The frosted glass charms are beautifully created, each etched with delicate trails of the leaf vines running through them for a realistic and charming finish. They come in a range of natural colours perfect for the chilled Autumn weather in frosted browns, reds and yellows to give your creations a look of falling from your back garden.

925 Sterling Silver Filigree Leaf Pendant 26x15mm PK1   /     Large Antique Silver Plated Leaf Pendant Charm 77mm PK1  /   Antique Sterling Silver 925 Leaf Charm Pendant 17mm PK1

If you looking towards other matierals, we have a plethera of silver plated and natural wood Pendants and Charms to help satsify your needs. You can create a traditional inspired silver necklace using the intricately patterned antique silver leaf pendant with a number of smaller additional charms to create a beautifully flowing drop necklace adorned with beautiful crisp silver leaves for a unqiue and Autumn inspired necklace.

Now we shall take a look at the colours and tones of Autumn . We are lucky here at BeadsJar to vast assortment of beads from traditional seed beads by Miyuki and Czech in a range of vivid and stunning colours to more muted and textured beads of bone, horn and wood. All the beads below each have a underlying theme of Autumn and would be a perfect match for any Autumn related design.

So starting from seed beads, we are working our way through the beads to help you decide what beads would best suit your project. Seed beads are good basis for beaders, as they are easy to manipulate and weave into complicated patterns and designs as well as being vivid in colour and tone for a eye catching and attractive design

So firstly if the Miyuki seed bead mix "Tango" - a mixtures of brightly coloured reds and yellows simulating the first colour changes of autumn. The shine on these beads are beautiful - highely polished to give a really eye catching attractiveness which could also been seen as "dew" on the leaves from the winds and rains of Autumn. I chose these specifically due to the oranges and reddish-brown beads also incorporated into the brighter red and yellow give the sense of the leaves slowly changing but the natural, non-plastic, look of Autumn.

Secondly, we move further into Autumn tones with the "Luminous" bead mixture. These beads have a matte finish with the colours slightly deeper then the previous mixture, as well as introducing more browns and earthy tones into the beads to almost simulate the colours beginning to be lost into the ground and the dying leaves - usually seen around mid November. Although not as bright or shiny as the previous, these beads are a true representation of colour in Autumn, as each colour almost oppose each other (instead of being harmonious) giving a beautiful contract from the larger Purple-browns and the vivid yellows and reds. This colour would also be a particular favourite for the American audiences as the colours are remisant of the traditional (and some what famous) American celebration of Thanksgiving - with the beads matching the bright decorations, the harvested foods and eventually the meal served for families. 

Last, but not least, "Wheatberry". Wheaberry simulates the natural colours of the leaves have left and the darker, more natural and earthy colours and tones  are left in preperation for the winter months.  This mixture of beads also introduce a milky, White bead into the darker colours not just a complimentary colour against the darker browns and mauves, but gives the look of frost to beads as if to show that Autumn is slowly drawing to a close as winter rolls in. This collection of colours is one of my personal favourites as the understated tones and colour give a natural and complimentary feel to each other - as if the ground as already become bespeckaled with the cold, frost and snow, giving a colder feel the beads. This to me is the real colour of autumn - the leaves have been trampled and are returning to the browns and bronzes from once they came.  

Czech O Bead® 3.8mm Jet California Gold Rush Beads 8.1g    /   True2™ Fire Polished Beads Crystal California Gold Rush

Moving on from the Miyuki range we also have some unusual Czech O-Beads ("Gold Rush") which uses an assortment of metallic colours of bronzes and golds to give the cooler and grittier feeling of Autumn, with the Czech Beads sitting flush to each other when threading giving this expansive colour of bronzes and golds for a modern and chic look which still fully keeps it's ideal of that end of season feel. The tight fit of the O-Beads intermixed with other styles of bead or even different materials give a interesting consistancy to the created piece 

True2 beads also named "Gold Rush" (coincidence?) which have the same rich tones and colours but instead of the smooth circular O-Beads, these are hexagonally cut and bevelled for an shimmering effect and giving the bead a high quality sheen (the sheen could be a similar feeling to the previous Miyuki beads with the idea that they have been weathered and have a dew coating to them) . I thought these beads would be great choice, as they are a more modern interpretation of Autumn and leaves, moving away from the traditional bright colours and tones for a more styliased and contemporary design. 

Faceted Rondelle Crystal Beads 10mm Red & Orange - 6"  

Next, the colours of the "Sunset" Rondelles would surely satisfy the tastes of many beader with their delicious tones giving the feeling of a sunset at dusk, the dusty colours of the beads, with their high gloss and textured exterior giving a small glimmer on the beads as if light from the sun was hitting it before it left. The faceted bead would perfect for a necklace, as the colours give would give a sweeping ombre effect, as if mimicking the trees full of varied colour giving that traditional autumn feeling. Matching these beads to prehaps bronze coloured findings and attachments - or even if you wanted to split the beads up and add addtional beads between - could compliment the vivid colour of the beads which, even worn all year around, would be a stunning piece to own. 

Crackle Design Red / Yellow / Orange Oval Resin Beads 15x12mm (PK5)

Staying with the textured feeling of the beads, we have a range of "Crackle" beads various Shades - but for the Autumn feel, I have chose the red, orange and yellow styles due to their similarity of fallen leaves. Their vivid colour isn't the most attractive aspect of this bead but the running "crackled" design that spreads out through the beads in a darker colour to the bead for a realistic and natural feeling to the bead - as if you could find it outside, weathered and but still vibrant in colour. What I think specifically works for this bead is the crackled effect running through giving this bead a natural and almost alive qualiry as well as looking extremely similiar to the vines you find running through tree leaves  gives a really unusual look but perfect for your Autumn designs

Dark Brown Bone & Horn Bead Mix Random Shapes/Sizes 50g

So finally, we look at the more natural materials of bone, horn and wood for Autumn designs. Wood, horn and bone are beautiful materials with each having a unquie properties and styles - wood beads have the beautiful grain lines inlayed into them from turning, varnished or painted to create some bespoke beads while natural horn and Bone Beads have a clean and smooth finish and can be polished for a high glossy shine. The bead set that I'm looking at, the horn and bone have been stained into a variety of colours - from a pale yellow colour to rich mahogany and chocolate tones for the other beads. What I especially like about this bead set , is the intricate carvings in the beads, imitating the natural nodules and textures of a real tree giving a charming and realistic finish. 

So I hope this look at Autumn has inspired some of your creations as always we love to see your creations, so head over to our Facebook page and  post on our wall (@BeadsJar) or tweet us @BeadsJar also! We will soon have an Instagram page of our own, so use the #beadsjar and we will like and comment on your awesome creations! We hope you get inspired by some of the posts here or if you have any inspiriations you'd like us to look at email me at [email protected] and I will happily note and reference you in any future posts!

Enjoy and have a wonderful day!

- Phill