Match Maker, Match Maker ...

If I no longer have available an example of a piece I sold, I almost always have a scan of it or the original "recipe" (the list and costs of materials that went into it). I quickly learned that if you haven't made matching pieces, a customer will want one .. or more (though it's often been the case that I'll make the matching pieces all at the same time, and they end up selling individually .. go figure). So it's always handy to know which piece a customer is talking about when they ask if you can make earrings to match "the bracelet with the wired pearls and little heart dangles" .. 'cuz they aren't gonna remember the name I associate with the piece they purchased .. well, sometimes .. maybe.

I mention this, of course, because I just received a couple of these requests recently. The ruby earrings I made to match a ruby pendant are a few posts down; but I have a new email request from Friday.




















This is a limited edition bracelet called Purple Phantasy - limited mostly because I had to drill/enlarge the holes a bit more in the large purple stone (called Sugilite) in order to get the wire gauge I wanted to use to go through it. I have an electric bead reamer for doing this, but it still takes a bit of work. The customer already has a pair of earrings to match the blue goldstone bead enclosed in a wire herringbone wrap and wanted a different pair. So I came up with five versions. I love doing this because I get to pump up my earring inventory a little .. and because it's always fun to see how many variations can be made. It's often the case that a bead that wasn't used in the piece, but is the same stone in a different cut or size, will also work as a match.

I did this in a couple ways here: in the pair below, I used a 6mm version of the 8mm Swarovski pearl used in the bracelet as a dangle beneath the granulated Bali bead cube;
the narrow, rectangular Fluorite "tube" beads here echo the striations in the larger, wider Fluorite bead; and then I combined a smaller ametrine bead with the wide Fluorite bead to create two quite different versions; the larger ametrine beads below were the best matched pair I could get out of the remaining beads from the original strand. This bead is a combination of citrine and amethyst; and I obviously chose beads for the bracelet that had more purple in them. These beads were two of the few that were not only the same size, but had enough amethyst in them to be considered a match. This pic shows them to be a bit darker than they really are.