From the Idea of Grapes to Beaded Grapes

I've been working on turning my grape vine inspiration into a project. I made my first attempt while camping. The colors are wrong because I did not have my green and purple beads with me, but what I was trying for was a good grape shape....

...I wasn't happy with the result. The shape was more like an acorn than a grape. Also, it didn't have the light-filled glowing quality I wanted.




When I got back into town, I tried a different design. This time I had the correct colors. I like the shape of the grapes, and I like the way these grapes hang from the stem.

But them my son walked by and asked "What's that green thing?" I decided that having green and purple grapes on the same stem was too jarring.



I was still attached to the idea of portraying ripening grapes, so I decided to mix green and purple together in the same grape. The result was a little too confusing to the eye.

I tried adding more grapes, but that didn't really help. It was too hard to see the spherical shapes when the colors were mixed.



For the final design, I simplified to all purple grapes and added a grape leaf. It took me a couple of tries to get the grapes to hang right on the stem, but now I am happy with the result.

Maybe this bunch of grapes will become half of a set of earrings, or the center piece of a necklace.