Description
The art deco pendant is made with size 10 delicas, using Peyote stitch. You can use size 11 delicas if you wish. I also sell all the materials for this project.
This art deco pendant design was inspired by the strong colours and geometric shapes that are associated with this art movement. I created the design for an issue of Bead and Jewellery magazine with a theme of ‘movement’.
So, I wanted to play with this idea. I ended up with a pendant that you can literally mix and match as you wear. The design comprises three square shapes within one another and each square can be turned over. By using different colours for front and back, you can mix and match. That way, you end up with a single colour pendant, or a mix of colours across the sections.
About the Art Deco Pendant
The Art Deco pendant is made using circular Peyote stitch. The instructions include detailed diagrams. However, if you feel you need more help with understanding the basics of this technique, you can find a free tutorial here. I used size 10 delicas for my pendant as this gave me a good size. This design will also work just as well with the more common size 11 delicas. (You can buy size 10 delicas here). You will need to use delicas, not other seed beads, because the strong geometric beadwork shapes need the regularity of the delica beads. If this sounds confusing, then there is a blog here that explains the difference between delica (or cylinder) beads and seed beads.
I chose to use bold colours because I felt they reflected the Art Deco style. However, you could equally use very different colours for your Art Deco Pendant. You just need to choose three colours. Two can be strong contrasts, but the third (edging) should go well with both your other two colours. So, you could think about a complementary colour scheme or an analogous colour scheme – this is a good opportunity to play around with colour theory.
