S925 Silver Auspicious Pattern Relief Spacer

When you are choosing a spacer bead, look first at where the pattern breaks. Auspicious pattern is a category rather than a single design. Ruyi cloud heads, key fret, scrolling vine, the lozenge and the endless knot all belong to it, each with its own way of moving, and what they share is that none of them depicts anything in particular. They turn the idea of good fortune into line. Patterns of this kind were used very widely, on porcelain, wood, embroidery and metalwork alike. The technique differs from material to material; the skeleton underneath is the same.

On a spacer, the pattern can only be a fragment. A full ring of scrolling vine at this diameter would turn into a grey mass, so the relief is kept low and the breaks in the line are placed at the side of the bore, where the front still reads as continuous. The trade calls this yielding: yielding the space the cord has to pass through, and at the same time avoiding the places where force arrives from two directions at once.

A spacer does two jobs. It divides, because a strand of beads that runs too long looks loose, and a spacer dropped in gives it a rhythm. It also covers a knot, since every strand has one where it is tied off, and beside a spacer it is the least visible thing on the piece. For that reason a spacer is usually half a millimetre to a millimetre narrower than the main beads. Larger and it steals attention, smaller and it disappears. Round is not the only shape; barrel and abacus forms both exist, but round is the most adaptable. Silver among wooden beads is a large difference in weight, so keep the silver at the centre of the strand or the whole thing will hang heavy at one end.

Relief in silver behaves differently according to the light. Raised high, it casts a strong shadow and the pattern stands out, but it catches on clothing. Raised low, it is smooth and easy to wear, and in dim light it cannot be seen at all. This piece takes the middle course: there is modelling when you look at it head on, and under the fingertip it is almost flat, so it will not pull a thread from a knit. Three to five main beads between spacers is the most comfortable proportion. The coarser the cloth, the more the height of the relief shows.

Warm beads work well beside it: amber, southern red agate, blood amber. The lines of an auspicious pattern are soft and warm colours carry them. A cool colour such as lapis also works, and gives the piece a graver mood. Tarnish is normal. The hollows blacken first and the pattern becomes more legible for it, so do not rush to polish it white. If you do use silver dip, keep the immersion short; leave it too long and the surface goes dead.