Designing for Others

When people ask for a custom necklace, I always ask about their preferred color(s), length, and style (classic, funky, vintage - whatever those mean!). Then I make an effort to do something that falls within their guidelines - sometimes it works right off the bat, and sometimes it doesn't. It's a challenge to not impose my personal taste and still create a piece that I'm happy to say I made.

A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a bag of square beige foil glass beads and asked for a necklace. Because I'm a brunette, beige beads are outside of my usual design color schemes, but I love foil glass, so I was happy to give it a try. These were my three trial runs:

This one alternated the square beads with roundish beads in a shimmery copper luster tone and small glass cylinders with a copper-color coating. The overall effect was on the elegant side, copper and beige with highlights.

This one grouped the square beads in threes and set off the groups with dark brown half-opaque round glass beads - the overall effect was classic.

This one alternated the square beads with small vintage beads in luster lavender and luster sage green. It was a great mix of old and new beads.

My friend chose the second one; which one do you think was my preferred necklace of the three??