Flowers for the Soul Courtesy of Redbalifrog Beads

Welcome to high summer with Redbalifrog beads

This is a perfectly themed release for the high summer period and true to form, Amanda’s designs are exquisitely detailed. The entire collection consists of three floral themed beads; Roses, Chrysanthemum and Daisy Chain.

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“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.

William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Introduction

I will openly admit to feeling a hint of trepidation when Amanda divulged the theme of this release to me. Regular readers will be aware how much I dislike floral themed glass beads. I have a few (and they’ll feature later) but with the exception of Trollbeads Flower Diamond kit (a touch of sparkle overrides anything for me), I just do not like them. Admittedly I knew this collection was set to be three silver floral beads but I was still concerned that they may not appeal to me on a personal level. How wrong I was.

From the moment these beads arrived, I really liked them. The detail for which Redbalifrog as a brand is synonymous is ever present. They far exceed any other floral beads I have seen in regards to their detailing. The great thing about receiving collections early, for me, is that I have the opportunity to wear them before I offer any kind of review. This allows me to form an opinion of just how versatile they actually are. I’ve had to remove photographs due for publication on this blog several times now after realising that these three beads were featured; I have simply found myself wearing them that much.

The beads are not just beautifully detailed and highly appropriate for summer accessorising but they will be useful well into the fall for your seasonal bracelets. Initially I’ll offer an in depth look at each bead before discussing how I’ve been styling my own.

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

Hans Christian Andersen

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Chrysanthemum

For collectors that like having a central, focal bead to their bracelets, this is ideal. It’s quite large, heavily textured and very eye catching.

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One of the aspects I truly appreciate about Redbalifrog beads is Amanda’s attention to the design as a whole. While in an ideal world, all beads would sit uniformly forward on a bracelet and never move, in reality that isn’t the case. The rear of this bead is as detailed as the front meaning that it doesn’t suffer from the “flat back” syndrome where the back of the design is apparently ignored. The image below shows the bead from a side on view to elaborate on the design. It also shows the subtle hallmarking of the bead.

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In regards to it’s size, it’s very similar to the existing Wreath from 2011′s Christmas collection (and indeed I’ll be recommending this bead later as a suitable compliment to this release.)

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Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Daisy Chain

As the name suggests, this bead is designed to reminisce those long chains of daisies that many of us would create in childhood; even it’s slightly eclectic shape reflects these. I like this bead because it’s design is just that little bit different to the norm.

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The hallmark for this bead sits just on the inside, again tucked neatly out of view to avoid disrupting the pattern.

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While this bead isn’t as focal or eye catching as the Chrysanthemum, it’s a detailed bead in it’s own right and makes a stunningly simple addition to floral themed bracelets.

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Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn’t room for any other thought.

Sophie Scholl

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Roses

The final bead in this quite captivating collection is Roses and I’ll admit this as being my personal favourite. This bead is very heavily detailed and this creates a lifelike representation of a rose with it’s layer upon layer of velvety petals. This is my primary reason for loving this bead. It’s one of the most true to life designs I have seen.

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The rose bloom patterning is present on both sides of the bead. In between the main feature lay both textured vines and again, a very subtle hallmark.

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You love the roses so do I.
I wish The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!

George Eliot, Roses

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Styling

Firstly I’d like to refer back to something I mentioned earlier; complimentary beads. The design of the Redbalifrog Chrysanthemum is quite reminiscent of the Christmas Wreath from the holiday collection in 2011. For that reason, I’d strongly recommend this as an addition for anyone buying this collection. As a reminder to either current collectors or new fans, the pictures below show the Christmas Wreath.

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Finally, all four beads together to give you an idea of their complimentary styling. (The Christmas Wreath is shown on the far left.)

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The obvious use of these silvers is for a thoroughly floral themed bracelet. For perhaps the first time on Endangered Trolls, that’s precisely what I’m about to show you.

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The purple colours were chosen primarily to give me a reason to showcase the new Pandora limited edition Purple Zebra and I’ll admit that while I love the colours and silvers, I’m still not convinced by floral printed glass.

For the second bracelet I wanted to embrace a summer theme, selecting additional silver beads and charms that embrace the things I love most about the warmer months.

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The soft pastel colours provide a subtle nod to the gelato hue trend of summer 2012 and make it super wearable.

I mentioned one aspect I love about these beads is their versatility. While they’re obviously suited to summer bracelets, these beads will be useful additions to your collection for fall themed bracelets. For fall, I always find myself reaching for colours that mimic the changes of the trees and silvers of a more natural theme.

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Frequently when I’m shopping for clothes, I favour classic styles that I know will retain their wearability in years to come. These beads fall into this category and I suspect most collectors will find them becoming a staple to their silver collection.

For the final bracelet, I wanted to touch on a hot fashion trend. Animal print is making an enormous comeback for the fall. Pandora have embraced this already with their animal print muranos. I’ve been wearing my animal print bracelet in one of two ways. Firstly the printed glass teamed with Trollbeads limited edition Chinese silvers. This set of beads are minimalist in their shape and maintaining the theme throughout a bracelet allows the focus to land solely on the glass. My second option that’s becoming quite the “go to” bracelet at the moment, is to mix the animal print with themed silvers.

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In the above combination, I’ve used the new Redbalifrog floral beads with some of the larger Trollbead’s animals to produce a themed bracelet. I love the use of the floral beads here as act as a representation of a beautiful sun and dry weather.

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul – Ordering Details

As always, it’s worth noting that there is an official Redbalifrog online store that can be found here. Global shipping is of course offered. For those who have had issues with Paypal I’d like to draw specific attention to the fact it’s now possible to pay as a guest. This allows you to simply place payment directly on your credit or debit card with Paypal purely acting as the platform.

The links to each bead on the official Redbalifrog store are as follows:-

• Redbalifrog Chrysanthemum
• Redbalifrog Daisy Chain
• Redbalifrog Roses

For those located in Europe and who wish to avoid the lengthier postage times, I have two recommendations.

Firstly is Heidi’s Trollbeads and More based in Austria. For Noosa fans who have yet to grab their limited edition Botan Kwa (the high summer peony), this is an ideal opportunity to save on separate shipping.

The links to each bead on Heidi’s store is as follows:-

• Redbalifrog Chrysanthemum
• Redbalifrog Daisy Chain
• Redbalifrog Roses

For Pandora fans who are keen to grab some of the animal print charms featured in this article, Perlen are now an authorised Redbalifrog retailer.

• Redbalifrog Official Store
• Heidi’s Trollbeads & More
• Perlen

Redbalifrog Beads – Flowers for the Soul Conclusion

This is another amazing release from Redbalifrog. Despite my initial reservations as to whether the collection would personally appeal to me, I’m not just adoring the beads but wearing them a huge amount.

Redbalifrog fans generally have an appreciation of the detail found in this brand. For those people rest assured that these exceed all expectations. The Roses bead is exquisitely detailed and a simply stunning example of artwork in jewellery form.

Much like a wardrobe, most bead collections have the items you wear on certain occasions (you still love them of course) and those you find yourself reaching for on a daily basis. Certainly through the warmer months and into fall, I consider these silvers to fall into the latter category. They aren’t obtusely shaped and they’re simple; these two factors make them incredibly versatile.

A final advantage I’d like to touch on is that of cost. Once again these beads are very reasonably priced. The Chrysanthemum, a large focal bead is just 30 EURs, the Daisy Chain is 25 EURs and the Roses bead 27 EURs. Collecting beads and charms can be an extremely costly affair. Between huge bi-annual collection releases come numerous limited editions and for most of us, it’s inconceivable to ever buy them all. Amanda takes a very different approach with Redbalifrog. She graces us with new creations frequently but in very small collection sizes. We always have something to look forward to and something attainable.

With much of Europe suffering from a poor summer, these three beads can at least remind us of the sun, warmer weather and the beautiful blooms of flowers.

Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them.

Chinese proverb

The beads in this article were provided free of charge for consideration and review. This does not bias the outcome.