“Wearability” is a word I frequently hear when working with the staff of Bead&Button magazine, BeadStyle’s sister publication. In Bead&Button, beaders stitch together the tiniest of beads to create the biggest and boldest of jewelry. While many beaders enjoy this work for the sake of creating art and have no intention of ever wearing it, others want their efforts to have a practical outcome – a piece they have occasion to wear, a piece that flatters an outfit, a piece with wearability.
Strung jewelry, like the kind we publish in BeadStyle, is usually quite wearable in this sense, but wearability can have another equally important meaning: how well does this jewelry look and feel when worn? Does this multistrand bracelet drape well on the wrist? Does this pendant flip backwards when it bumps against the collarbone? Are these earrings too heavy to be comfortably (and safely) worn all day?
Just like I won’t wear ill-fitting clothing (contrary to the theory that owning smaller clothes will help you keep your weight down), I won’t wear a piece of jewelry that has wearability issues.
For instance, a few weeks back I blogged about this necklace that I made to wear to my brother’s wedding. Shortly after the blog, I wore the necklace around the office as a test drive. Wearability alert! The beautiful toggle clasp constantly flipped backwards and the coin beads did not lie flat but twisted and turned unattractively on the strand. I imagined myself at the wedding having to adjust the piece every time I was asked to be in a photo – annoying! Not my idea of a well-made design.
So I restrung it with two strands of faceted rounds. The double strands add more weight to the piece, making the toggle clasp stay put. And the round beads can twist and turn all they want and nobody will ever know.
Also, notice the spacers at the end of each strand – those are the product of another wearability discovery. When I restrung the necklace with just faceted rounds, the rounds at the ends of the strands bumped against each other, preventing a graceful convergence of the strands. I added small spacers to eliminate the “bump” factor.
The end result is a necklace that won’t require putzing during the wedding, a piece with wearability. To me, that’s totally worth the extra time, effort, and materials it took to restring. Plus, the lessons learned will help me make more wearable jewelry next time, and hopefully on the first try.