With or Without Pearls--A Refashioned Necklace

Before I had made this necklace into a double wrap length with these beautiful pearls. 

But when I went to refashion it, I took out the pearls and made it simpler. 

Which do you prefer?? 

To pendant or to not to pendant....?

Pearls. I have noticed I've been drawn to large, odd shaped pearls lately and was talked into buying the last two strands of peachy pink tear drop shaped pearls at my last gem faire. They were gorgeous so why not? 

While visiting my mom, I made her this. 

Her pearl were more round and disk like. 

My next strand looked like this. 

This worked out because she likes round, I prefer irregular. To finish this guy, I added a pendant. 

Fancy close up, please:

Preference?

How to insert line breaks in your Instagram bio

Holy cow this had been bothering me for ever! I hated how my Instagram bio had the words running together.

I tried to manually insert spaces but could not force a line break. 

A quick search on Google, (what did we do before Google????) and this link here:

http://www.lifeinlimbo.org/2014/08/27/instagram-tips-how-to-add-line-breaks-and-spaces-to-your-captions-and-bio/

And look 😁😁😁 I did it!

I did what the link said and started a fb post with the text from my bio. I then inserted line breaks in that space, copied and pasted back into the instagram bio. Tada!!!!!!

Pleased as punch. Now if there was a life style hack for parenting...

Today's Necklace--decisions, decisions

I need to make ten of the same necklace for a future press gifting event. I was playing around with some ideas and took these pic along the way. I wanted to use these pale blue jade beads I got at the San Diego bead faire. When I was adding the chain components, it looked very simple and sweet. 

I wanted the piece to have an edgier feel so I decided to add some pyrite in gunmetal to the other side. 

I could have left this just like a chain but I wanted to see what a pendant would look like. 

Hmmmmmm pearl? That always looks classic and elegant. But not too edgy. Pyrite??

I decided to go with the cool shaped pyrite bead stacked with a silver spacer and a silver toned pyrite. The finished necklace looks like this. Would you be happy to receive this as a gift? 

Easy DIY Teapot Necklace--no skills required.

Today, I wanted to post a necklace I "made" over the weekend.  I put "made" in quotes because really, what I did was walk into the craft store in search of a storage container, meandered onto the beading section, saw an impossibly cute package of tea themed charms and bought them.

I suppose this would look terrific on a charm bracelet or something more complicated but all I did was buy a16 inch sterling silver chain. The simplest one.

That was it. I put the teapot on the chain and viola. The perfect necklace for me. Why? Because I drink a lot of tea. I love tea. Its my go to drink. There's a cute tea cup in this package. That may be necklace number two.

Perhaps next time you  are at the craft store you will walk over to the beading section, find a charm/pendant you like and put it on a simple chain. I saw some adorable Alice in Wonderland ones, I saw Acorns for Wendy lovers from Peter Pan, I saw hearts, turtles, fish, dragons, and so much more! 

What an incredibly inexpensive way to make custom gifts for your friends!

I feel guilty posting this as a DIY.  But maybe someone will make a necklace seeing this post and have that "AHA that's so easy I could totally do that" moment :)

Happy snowy Monday.

Follow me for more fun and easy ideas or just pretty pictures of beads!

David Yurman, I Love You.

David Yurman is one of my favorite jewelry designers. I love the chains, the stones, the rings... One day I saw a quadruple strand moss aquamarine necklace in a Yurman catalog and fell in love. But me, being sort of smallish, probably couldn't wear all THAT.  So off I went, on a quest to recreate. I wish I had the original picture. I will keep looking

Regardless, here is my David Yurman inspired triple strand necklace. And a selfie to boot :) 

Looks great with my usual, very casual style :) (so says me, taker of selfie and maker of jewels....)

Tourmaline Disks Go From Sloppy to Sassy

This refashion is, in my opinion, a drastic change and vast improvement. Early on, while I was trying the silk knot thing, I had (and still have) a hard time deciding on the string size. Sometimes the string won't fit when doubled on a needle. Sometimes the knots are too small and go right through the beads. In this case, I had to use a thin thread but the beads just wouldn't stay put on the necklace. I even double knotted which was not as aesthetically pleasing.

I made it long enough so I wouldn't need to use a clasp and because it was silk, it was very light and easy to wear. But the darn beads kept moving and sliding on the silk string because the knots were too small. That was a bit infuriating, even though it was my fault for the string size choice...big sigh. 

But then, after a while of thinking about it, mulling it over, turning it around in my hand, viola. 

A bracelet. These beads were meant to be close and next to each other. Not knotted separately on a string... For now ;) 

Citrine and Rock Crystal Necklace Gets A Focal Pebdant

A few years ago, I went to what I thought was a gem show but was really a mineral and rock show. Refusing to go home empty handed, I bought a few Druzy sparkling geode slices. I didn't know what to do with them and as my wire skills improved, I was able to add a stone at the center to make it more exciting.

I also had this very plain, wear with anything, rock crystal and citrine necklace on a gold chain. 

They were both within the same color scheme, and then the aha moment. Here is what it was:

And what it became 

Close up 

The Three Stages of Green Tourmaline Tubes

Sometimes I have a strand of beads and I know what I want to make right away. Other times, like in this case, it takes three tries.

First, I tried silk knots with a moss aquamarine pendant.

No. I didn't love it. 

Then I went from silver to gold and created a longer and wire wrapped piece. 

Still, no no no. 

I finally settled on a triple strand bracelet. Yes? 

An Elephant's Journey

Ametrine. I just found out this is a combination of amethyst and citrine--thus the purple/lavendar color to yellow.

This strand was so pretty with the purple and yellow ombré and I had this new ultra strong, no needle needed beading string to try. 

As the eye catching detail, I added this silver elephant. I have a thing for elephants. They bring good luck. I have a collection of them. It's better if the trunks are raised upward but regardless, elephants, in my mind, bring luck.

Sadly, the way I strung this necklace, the elephant  always showed its butt. No good. I needed to add a jump ring to make it lie flat like I forced it to do for this pic. So, knowing a this necklace had an ill positioned pendant, the editing began. 

First? The gemstones. The necklace was shortened to a bracelet. 

I like to mix green with purple. It's a thing I do. Not sure why. The bead that is on the silver circle is green, tho this photo is particularly dark.

What happened then, to the sweet, lucky elephant that kept showing its backside?

It jumped onto a crocheted necklace that I had just been working on, that was in need of a focal pendant.

A friend stopped by, saw the necklace and the elephant and took it home. She, apparently likes elephants too. :) 

The Fascinating Thing About Silver Circles

Blue faceted agate beads that almost look like marbles caught my eye at a gem show. I thought they'd make a cool necklace wire wrapped with silver and some silver pearls to go with the grey hues in the blue. I came home and created this:

I thought it was quite pretty but no bites. 

I added a few silver circles and wham! Sold at the next show. 

Pink Tourmaline and Diamonds vs. Pearls?

Reminds me of that Prince song, "Diamonds and Pearls."

My tourmaline beads are so tiny I thought it would be great with this equally small pave diamond bead. But Drats. I forgot to measure the thing and upon completion, the necklace was a hair short of 16 inches making it a bit short/tight around my neck. 

Then, while pondering a gift for my mom, I thought "hey, I could make the center bigger and lengthen the entire thing." Like this: 

And so I did. I gave it to my mom and she wears it as a casual every day necklace :)

Hang a Pearl On It--Or In This Case, Two.

My beading bestie bought three strands of this gorgeous graduated moss to make a multi strand necklace but then found other strands that were not graduated. I kindly asked to buy one of the strands she was not using. They were gorgeous. To wear immediately, I strung them, as is, on beading wire and closed with crimps. A five minute project, 4 minutes hunting down the clippers. 

But then, while prepping for my most recent show, I decided to add a pearl but one seemed so small. I added another and a stone for sass:

I liked it so much, I wore it to the bazaar. 

Close up selfie of me wearing this necklace to a recent classical guitar concert series:

Labradorite and Silver. No wait, Garnets...

I love the odd shapes of these awesome labradorites. I used silver wire with silver circles and wire wrapped the labradorites to look like this:

Looking at this photo now, I think this is lovely. Even looked great on:

But I guess I started over thinking it and started playing with it again and again. I swapped out the silver ovals for garnets and turned it into this: 

I eventually gave it to my son's teacher as an end of the year gift. Which is better? Silver or garnet? 

Labradorite Earring Upgrade

I love the tear drop shape of these labradorite hoops. I also love labradorite. But something was missing.

I love the yellow and grey combo but instead of like this, I changed it up like this, and they sold :) 

Swapping out Leather for Stones

I tried my hand at using leather but had mixed results. Everything seemed bulkier than I wanted and the leather I ordered was not exactly what I had in mind. I liked this at first, but ended up going back to gemstone roots. 

I removed the long leather strand and added silver chain on one side and wire wrapped the other for an asymmetrical look. I wanted to accent the orange hues of the carnelian drop so I decided to use hessonite--A type of garnet that ranges from yellow to orange to brown. 

Which do you prefer?

A Pink Necklace Shortened with a Pendant

This necklace was made to be worn in various ways.

With the pink pearls in front or the pink agate in front or the moonstone. But the heaviest section always moves to the front. So, rather than give in to gravity?

Tada!

Blue diamonds

It all starts with a strand of beads. Right?

I split a strand of blue diamonds with my beading bestie who went to the Vegas bead show. 

Diamonds, I have learned, are really really sparkly. Rough cut, colored, big, small, they all really sparkle. 

Then I went to make a long blue diamond necklace but the wire I had (28g) wouldn't fit. So I got thinner 30 gauge and we were in business. However, this was blinding work. The holes in the already small beads were tiny and hard to see. (Yes, bigger diamonds would have broken the bank.) 

To save my sanity I linked the diamonds together but added sections of chain so I could "cheat" a bit. Here is what I made. But........

I found that I never wore it. Something about it. Too dainty, too something. So I oxidized the silver. (That means I made it tarnish on purpose to turn the wire all black.) 

I wanted to add a little more sizzle so I laid out some options. 

See how making the wire black changed the delicate to a bit more rocker/funky? It gives the necklace more weight, I think. But I didn't love love love these. A few more options were laid out. 

And the winner is......

And this is what it looks like, on.