Sometimes I think it would be easier to create bracelets if I didn’t have such an aversion to duplicates on them.
Shortly after I started collecting Pandora, I did a swap for a Black Mother of Pearl Love Me bead and then my husband surprised me with one for Valentines Day a few days later. That was the first duplicate bead that I had and I thought I’d be fine with that (I actually thought it would work out quite well), but since that was the only bead that was duplicated on the bracelet, it stuck out more than I wanted. After thinking it over for a month or two, and also taking into consideration that I had a long list of beads I wanted and only so much space on a bracelet, I decided to keep the one that my husband had given me and once again swapped the duplicate off to another home. And yes, I could tell the difference between the two beads. ;) Avoiding duplication on my Pandora bracelet isn’t too hard since it has no glass beads and many of the Pandora silver beads are very similarly shaped so I can still maintain my much-needed sense of balance. I do have duplicates of my Pandora spacers, but only because the narrow width of the spacers meant that I couldn’t find other beads that were both similarly sized and shaped.
With Trollbeads, the silver beads are very different in both size and shape, so I’ve found that I have to be less particular about the silver beads and just find ones that are close enough in size and texture or I’d end up with duplicates of every bead! After buying my first Organic Bubbles and coming under its thrall, I once again tried my hand at using duplicates within the glass beads and ordered another Organic Bubbles online, although this time I hoped that it would have more of a brown tone to it like the stock picture. When it arrived, I discovered that it was also a rich green like my first, with just a hint of blue to differentiate the two. Once again, after contemplating it for a while, I decided that since it wasn’t different enough from my first, it too should go off to another home. That was also the last time that I ordered a production glass bead online sight-unseen, since you never quite know what you are going to get!
I do have three Blue Desert beads, but since they each have a distinct look they don’t really feel like duplicates even though they share the same name. I currently wear them in different combinations, so you wouldn’t even know that I have duplicates unless you were looking in my bead box.
I’m curious if anyone else avoids duplication of beads on their bracelets? Or does everyone else subscribe to a more laissez-faire approach to building bracelets?