Pendants and Focal Pieces…. The  Center of Attention!

In Los Angeles right now there’s a little trend going on. It’s a new fangled thing called a “pendant”. HA! Ok, I know that the pendant has been around a while, but right now, a featured item in the middle of a chain or strand of beads is sizzlin’ hot!

A pile of posies!

Indulge me while I brag a bit about this design by our own Ashley Bunting. This beautiful blooming pendants is a simple stack of colorful Lucite, with one metal component for some texture diversity, and then a crystal for a centerpiece. Brilliant and beautiful! And the colors will really seize your attention. Isn’t that what a centerpiece should do? YES!

Begging to be yours!

Take a look at this blank palette… it’s a vintage 1920’s Czech glass pendant in jet black. And its just frothing at the mouth to be made into something totally unique. The indentation on top is just slightly rounded, so all you resin junkies out there… take advantage! It’s a perfect canvas for collage, printed words, 3-D flowers, flat back rhinestones or whatever else you can pile up on there. Or… if you’re feeling more traditional, put a cab on there, such as a stone cab or maybe a glass cameo cab. This pendant has gobs of potential!

Link to this!

Feast your baby blues on this circa 1940 green glass Japanese ring!!! Va! Va! Voom! Does this just BEG to be linked into a chain of big sterling loopy-loops? Add one, three or more for a punch of color. Ok, as far as a pendant goes, this is a great component to suspend beads from, wire wrap beads onto, or hm...what else? Something inside me wants to wrap glorious and lush fibers around my neck and feed them through this as a centerpiece. Wait! How about wire wrapping this onto an oval shaped filigree and then clustering some flowers into it. It would have a sinfully beautiful green frame, wouldn’t it? Endless options in this green ringlet.

Speaking of gorgeous green glass…

The Japanese loved to re-create the look of their beloved jade using glass. Jade is so treasured in Asian culture, but not everyone can afford it, so this look-alike glass became a blessing to many! This particular pendant is a treasure to us since one of our ‘vintage bead archeologists’ found this over 10 years ago in designers overstock. What luck for us! You’ll find this stunning flowery pendant in the famous and necessary-for-your-bead-book-collection book by Peter Francis Jr. called Beads of the World. This pendant is a must for your collection!

Retro flowers             

Here’s another brilliant Ashley design, using a cluster of Swarovski crystals and metal flower components to create this oh-so-1950’s pin/pendant! It just shows how brilliant an assemblage of great components can be when clustered onto a base. Consider a piece of filigree an open and blank palette on which you can build a masterpiece! And we’ve got some gorgeous filigree to build off from.

Another filigree idea

This pretty pendant from Stylehive.com shows how you can wrap a piece of filigree around a stone to create a focal piece with wow-factor! You can use filigree as a bale, a setting, a bead or whatever you wish just by folding, rolling, bending or twisting it carefully into the shape you need.

The filigree pendant

It only seems natural to mention these little pendant jewels since we’re talking about filigree. Not exactly bendable, but totally the perfect component to build from, wrap beads on, dangle stuff from, or whatever you can imagine. This bauble makes the perfect pendant or earring all by itself!

“Do you have something that I can put in the middle of this strand that screams LOOK AT ME!?” ~ A customer looking for a focal centerpiece. She chose a vintage chandelier piece and then wire wrapped it at the top to make her own bezel. Beautiful!