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? 

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. 

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? 

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.