Wire and Pearl Necklace

For the last two days I have been working on a Wire and Pearl Necklace. I saw a design example on a bead seller’s website who sells jewellery making kits. Of course the kit was all plated wire and glass beads and I do not work with glass or plastic beads. Only real stones, pearls and shell will do for me! Ok so I am a snob.

Anyway.... I was sure I could use my materials and do it. First I had to think hard about the colours. I have thousands of Pearl beads and I think they are all beautiful so it took me a while to pick on the shades I wanted to use for my first attempt. Two strands of green pearls sort of stood out so they were the chosen ones. Then I had to think about wire. I have 26 g sterling silver wire and I could have used that but then thought I should do the test run on cheaper wire. Ages ago I bought some Gold Plated 26 g wire from eBay and it’s never been used, because being a snob I work in Sterling Silver and Gold filled! So the plated wire finally got its chance.

It was fun figuring out how to work with 5 meters of wire without getting all tangled up! The instructions I had downloaded were good but not brilliant. Sometimes people who are experts forget that a novice needs things explained in simple terms! Anyway I worked it out in the end and started twisting the wire and pearl. As the necklace grew in length it started getting Very Complicated! Keeping the finished part of the necklace away from the wire coil was interesting to say the least. And my fingertips hurt!!! They still do! I had chosen tiny pearl beads and they were not smooth so about fifty odd twists later I had to stop. Started afresh next morning and finally got the necklace finished last night. Oh it’s beautiful! I think I am keeping it for me :)

Once the necklace was finished I still had lots of pearls left so now we also have matching earrings and bracelet. I am a happy girl today! Bring on the nice wire and potato pearls! I am itching to make some more.

Now on Display in my MISI Shop

Comments

ESC Artists Exhibition at Stamford Arts Centre - a-n The Artists Information Company

ESC Artists Exhibition at Stamford Arts Centre - a-n The Artists Information Company : Escape the Ordinary!

Bead Hoarders Blog Hop Reveal

So its time to reveal what I have been hoarding. Well this does not even touch the surface of things I have stashed away but its a start! Let me begin by introducing fellow Stamford Artisans Guild member DL Designs of Rutland . Diz makes the most amazing jewellery, charms and lanyards in different types of cords and threads and I admire her work a lot. So about two years ago I bought a handmade hemp macramé cording knot necklace from DL Designs. And then I promptly put it in safe keeping because I wanted to make something special with it. And I have been hoarding it all this time. I also had a beautiful Labradorite Cabochon cut and polished in house in our Lapidary workshop . This beautiful stone has a magnificent Labradorescence and I have had it on my board for almost 6 months! Because of the angle its been cut at it needed a special wrap on it for the colours to be seen in full glory. I have wrapped it a couple of times and then taken the wire off because the Labradorescence w...

7th Bead Soup Party: Shalini's Sparkly Serving Revealed!

So the day is finally here! Its PARTY TIME! My parties are always "Bring a Bottle" kinds so help yourself to your favourite tipple and enjoy! Part 1: This is my first entry into the world of Bead Soups. Be gentle lovely people... It all started when I signed up for the Pretty Things 7th Bead Soup Blog party on 26 January. I have since blogged a bit about it. My Partner Sarah Goode from Pookledo sent me a lovely stash of shiny things! A handful of Swarovski disc crystals / Some metal glitterballs in various sizes / A length of silver plated chain / Some Swarovski glass pearls / a magnetic glitterball clasp Yummy I hear you say! It is! But apart from the silver chain these are things I have NEVER worked with before! My pieces tend to have a lot of colour in them! And here I am looking at lots of grey (OK shiny silvery grey but it is shades of grey, maybe not quite 50 but near enough!) HELP! This is totally out of my comfort zone! You set me a chal...

Beadsoup Blog Party: Shalini's Soup is Served! Finally!

The chef is a lazy sod but I do hope the servings have been worth waiting for? For a while it was Will she, Won't she, Can She? Yes she can! :-) I didn't get to use any fancy tools like the torch, saw, drill or add ingredients like solder but I did what I could with the lovely ingredients and I think they did not need any extra embellishments to be honest! The fantastic Bead soup from my partner Susan McClelland had enough ingredients in it to just add a bit of wire, a few findings to create this! The main piece! Sari Silk Ribbon, Ceramic Pendant Focal, Hand etched Copper Clasp, handmade glazed ceramic beads and plenty of copper wire. All joined together with my trademark spiral links. YES Fabric! Not really my friend! But it was too beautiful not to use! Thanks for the challenge Susan, I quite enjoyed playing with the sari silk to make it part of the pendant. Tools: My hands, Flat and round nose pliers and dodgy eyes....

UK Inspiration Challenge... "Walk On..."

I came across ArtisanWhimsy on Facebook through MyBeadTherpay ’s Page (I follow Heidi’s work with a passion because she has inspired me to try so many new things and its great to see how wonderfully her work has progressed in the 2 odd years we've been talking bling with each other!) And right there on the front page of the forum was this little banner which took me to a page which said: “Can you create a piece of jewellery or a jewellery component inspired by where the UK Blog team live?” The choices were Dorset / Edinburgh / Bath / The Isle of Wight / Liverpool / Southampton and this is what the description said about Liverpool : image courtesy Wikipedia “ Liverpool is world-famous as the home of The Beatles, but is also well known for football, the Scouse (now there's a term for you non-Brits to look up!) sense of humour and of course, the shipping port and the River Mersey” The description and for various other reasons Liverpool it had t...

Jewellery By Shalini

Search This Blog