OOTD: Blue Seed Beads & Silver Coin Pendant Layered Necklace

I am continuing to have a terrific time making seed bead and metal spacer bead multi-strand necklaces, which seem to have just the right laid-back vibe for summer.

The necklace du jour is made from a mix of 3mm and 4mm seed beads in a few shades and finishes of dark blue and periwinkle blue interspersed with silver-tone long, square, and round spacer beads plus three strands of narrow silver-tone box chain. I am pretty much thrilled with how this one turned out! The mix of blues and the ratio of colorful beads to metal beads were spot on for me. To bolster the silver chain look and include a pendant, I layered on two narrow chains above the bead necklace and the coin pendant on top of it (three of the pieces in a four-piece layering set that I purchased last fall; the fourth piece is a somewhat heavier chain that I thought would look a bit unbalanced here).

My WFH outfit of the day was based on this floral tank top (yes, another floral print on a navy background; what can I say?) with the blue necklace picking out the medium blue flowers from the print. I put that together with a sorta navy "suit" consisting of a navy button up shirt (with silver buttons) worn as a jacket and a very dark denim pencil skirt. I have been extremely happy with this skirt, which (if I remember correctly) was a rare in store purchase that I made after returning some online purchases to Lands End. The cut, the length, the thick-yet-a-bit-stretchy very dark denim...it checked all the boxes. I like that it's a "smart casual" denim pencil skirt, which isn't something you see all the time. I decided on these cheerful green flats to coordinate with the leaves from the floral print.

OOTD: 7/16/21

Denim pencil skirt - Lands End - 24W - $25.58 - 5/2019

Navy/blue floral tank - Croft & Barrow/Kohls - 1X - $14.99 - 5/2018

Navy button up shirt - thrifted, CJ Banks/Goodwill - 3X - $5.59 - 2/2020

Dark blue/periwinkle/silver multi-strand seed bead necklace - made by me - 5/2021

Silver coin pendant & chain set - Elizabeth & James/Kohls - $11.22 - 11/2020

Green flats - Amazon - $22.99 - 2/2020

My other accessories were more DIY beading projects. I had made the three smaller medium green seed bead bracelets and the chunkier dark green seed bead bracelet with silver and gold spacers last summer. Then this summer, after getting my bulk random bead order from Amazon, I made the bottom bracelet from these pretty light green tiger-eye beads with cream seed beads. Finally, a couple weeks ago I made the three seed bead bracelets that are a mix of medium green, dark blue, clear, and/or yellow specifically to coordinate with this floral tank.

I know...what?? But yes, I really did that. I so enjoyed the special seed bead bracelet duo I made last summer to go with a striped shirt that was in high rotation that I've been identifying my top go-to print garments this summer and making seed bead bracelets to wear with them. I have been very leery of making jewelry in cool color combinations that are not actually reflective of the combinations I wear, so I'm deciding on projects starting with my wardrobe rather than a context-free sense of what would make a pretty piece. I hope that way to make useful things I'm actually going to wear right away rather than items that are going to languish unworn. It's also given me a way to prioritize what I make. I jokingly call it just in time production for my jewelry-making cottage industry...in which I am both supply and demand.

The last DIY piece is this pair of chip bead earrings, once again utilizing the wire loop and French hook pieces I purchased in bulk from Amazon for super-easy-and-quick-to-make bead earrings. And yep, the color scheme of blue, green, white, and yellow was partly inspired by the floral tank...but only partly. The random mix bulk bead box from Amazon has a LOT of these little chip beads in them, and the vast majority of them are in these colors. I admit, at first I was quite baffled by these weird little beads and wasn't sure what they could be used for. So I decided to see what they looked like on the wire hoop and liked the effect.

Now what I will do with the gobs of other beads just like these, I don't know. The first thing that pops into my mind right now is that the irregular shapes and the colors have a sort of beach-glass-esque feel to me. It might be interesting to use them as you would glass in making a mosaic. Something to let my brain chew on in the background.

Do you ever purchase or make accessories to go with a certain piece of clothing in your wardrobe?

I link up with:

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge (Mondays; 3rd Thursday)

Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)

Debbie at My Random Musings (Mondays)

Leelo at Beauty by Miss L (Mondays)

Roxanne at Glass of Glam (Mondays)

Laura at I Do deClaire (Tuesdays)

Emma at Style Splash (Tuesdays)

Jess at Elegantly Dressed & Stylish (Tuesdays)

Gail at Is This Mutton? (Wednesdays)

Shelly at The Queen in Between (Wednesdays)

Jodie at Jodie's Touch of Style (3rd Thursday)

Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom (Thursdays)

Ada at Elegance and Mommyhood (Thursdays)

Jacqui at Mummabstylish (Thursdays)

Suzy at The Grey Brunette (Fridays)

Nancy at Nancy's Fashion Style (Fridays)

Michelle at My Bijou Life (Fridays)

Erika at A Little Bit of Everything (Fridays)

Rena at Fine Whatever (Saturdays)