I can't say that the textured glass pearls sometimes known as "ice pearls" have every been my favourite beads. It's often been the opposite. I've actually used them twice: once for an objet d'art where I used round red ice pearls as wild strawberries strung on a straw of timothy-grass (see this post) and for a summer sea themed bead embroidered brooch (here) where the beads had just the right colours and shine (and it was for a contest so I needed to use beads from the shop, which limited my bead choices).
Anyway, while I've almost always disliked the beads, like with so many things I've still got a few of them in the evergrowing stash, having beaded for years now. In this case, the ice pearls came from two bead mixes I got ages ago. Just recently I sat down and sorted the beads -- having searched for the crackled glass beads in the mixes to illustrate a blog post -- and put them all in neat little piles, one for each bead type/shape. And I must say the colour combo in the ice pearl pile ignited a spark.
The are still not favourite beads, but at least now I feel interested in doing something with them. They inspire me, which ice pearls have only done once before (the brooch doesn't count). Wonder what it'll be: I only know I want to create something.
That's a good reason to hold on to beads you might not like that much. One day you might discover something in them that you never saw before or you find something else that could use those half forgotten beads, tucked away behind the more attractive ones, to complete the design. You just never know.
Ha! I feel exactly the same about ice pearls. And I too have a few in my stash since a few years back. I've never used them. Nowadays they are kept among a rather big lot of other beads that I plan to get rid of all together. BUT I do agree with you. I have beads I didn't like that I recently actually have used. And I must say, that from the photos you've taken of your ice pearls the colors lock really nice together (mine are all pale and boring). You could make something dramatic looking with them. I am looking forward to see the result of your self-challenge so to speak. Exciting! All my best, Malin
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! Oh, I've got a pile of destash beads too. Never seem to get around to actually destash them... (Which has been lucky a few times as I later ended up needing a select few of them, but mostly they just sit there.) I'm thinking of Tradera, but I don't know...
DeleteI'm not going to make any promises about using the ice pearls any time soon. No idea what to do with them at the moment, but they keep beckoning me. And there's more beads than in the pic so hopefully there are enough for whatever design idea pops into my head.
All in all, really glad I sorted out these beads as it made me see possiblities I didn't see before. And found an interesting colour combo just by chance. Yay!
Hi love the colour combo and the surface of the beads. I never bought ice pearls as I didn't like the surface at all. At Christmas, my sister had a lovely necklace partly made of ice beads. I really liked it. As for me, I often find interesting beads in my stash. Some of them I really didn't like from the beginning. I think our feelings and moods change and we find beauty in different things. That's why I seldom destash. And only to my sister...then the beads stay close to me. ;-) Milka
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