Monika Wiklund

I made this necklace to use with a pale green cocktail dress for an agent-themed party that we were invited to earlier this year. The plan was to achieve something that would fit into a James Bond movie, and I think that this necklace is a pretty good approximation considering what I had to work with and how much time I had to come up with something.

The necklace is made using the RAW technique and consists of different sized metal spacers and pale green transparent semi-precious beads with a few larger faceted rock crystal beads in the center. There is also a matching bracelet which I do not have any pictures of but I think that both the necklace and the bracelet fit perfectly together with the cocktail dress and we had a great time at the party.

Photography by Kristian.

The moment I saw these twisted metal links and the spiral pendant I was in love. I found them this spring when I went to “Syfestivalen” with my sister and of course I had to buy some links and a pendant to try and make something of. Of course, I also found the rectangular stone beads at “Syfestivalen” but from another company. If I remember correctly, the stone beads are charoite and I love the structure and shifting purple and white color.

As usual, I had no real plans for which beads to use together when I bought them, but once I got home and started to plan out a necklace with the metal links and pendant I realized that the charoite stone beads fit perfectly with the links and with this thick metal chain that I already had in my stores. I am very happy with the resulting necklace, and I have even thought about buying more of the metal links and pendants to make copies or variations of the theme.

Photography by Kristian.

I think that I made this necklace sometime before Christmas, but I have not gotten around to posting about it until now. It is a fairly simple chain link necklace made of green agate and flower shaped links. The agate beads are linked into the chain by using eye pins and as you might already have guessed, I choose the green beads as a contrast to the flower links because the color made me think about leaves.

Perhaps it would have been better to only use one kind of flower links, but I did not have enough of either of the links to make a whole necklace unless I combined them like this, and I am very happy with the result.

Photography by Kristian.

Even though this seashell pendant is pretty big, this has quickly become one of my favorite necklaces. I knew that it was a large seashell pendant when I ordered it, but I did not realize just how big until I received it.

Like with some of my earlier seashell necklaces, I created a seed bead frame for the seashell pendant, and in this case I also made the pattern go all the way around to cover the back of the seashell which is kind of neat since it does not matter which side of the pendant that is showing. This necklace is a perfect match for one of my sweaters, and I have used it several times.

Photography by Kristian.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Sirlig pärlor once again has started a design contest, this time with the theme “Harmony”. At first I was not sure whether I wanted to participate or not, but after some thinking I decided to give it a try and to use this necklace as my contribution.

The necklace is a fairly long chain necklace with gold-colored links of different sizes and shapes in combination with large rectangular african jade beads, smaller faceted raw emeralds, large donuts of kambaba jaspis, and a dark brown wooden pendant with a flower pattern in lighter brown and a raw emerald. Although the different stones are quite different in structure, size and shape, I think that the different shades of green harmonizes with the brown of the pendant and the golden color of the metal links and I think that it fits very well with the theme of the design contest.

To be honest I did not create this necklace specifically for the contest, rather I made it to wear with the dress I borrowed for my sister’s medieval fantasy themed wedding. The dress I borrowed was a dark brown wool dress with details in dark green and a white shift underneath, that is, the same colors that I used for the necklace.

Here is a picture of me and Kristian from the wedding where I was wearing the dress for which I made the necklace, the details are a bit small but it is possible to recognize the necklace if you click the picture to see a bigger one.

Photography by Kristian (and a friend).

This has become one of my favorite chain necklaces and I have used it several times already. Most of the materials that I used for this necklace have been lying around, waiting for me to use them for some time now, especially the large silver-foil pendant that was much larger than I had expected when I ordered it and the large black stone beads that I have been trying to figure out what to do with them since I got them.

At last I came up with this idea, and I am very happy that it turned out so well. I like the combination of large beads and thick metal links, and I think that these different materials go very well together. As I often do, I created the chain by using links from three different chains and also added the large flower shaped links since I wanted an even bigger and heavier chain to go with the large beads and the heavy pendant. This is a pretty big and perhaps a bit heavy necklace, but I love the shape and the colors and I hope to use it many more times.

Photography by Kristian.

Here is a very simple but striking necklace made of green agate and large metal leaf links. The metal links come from a chain that I have had lying around for some time now. I think that I have used a few links before, but I still have most of the chain left even after making this necklace. I think that it looks pretty good with the green agate beads in between the leaves, and it also makes the chain a bit easier to handle since the leaf links tend to catch on each other in the original chain.

Photography by Kristian.

For this necklace, I used two different sizes of red coral beads, small white seashell beads and some metal spacers combined with a smallish red silver-foil heart pendant. The theme is similar to an earlier necklace with coral and black lava stone, but I think that this necklace has a more sophisticated look. I especially like the star-shaped toggle clasp and the flower-shaped metal links that I framed the larger coral beads with.

Together with this necklace, I also made a matching bracelet without the flower metal links and I even tried to make matching earrings but since I was not satisfied with the result I only made the one earring. There are no pictures available of neither the bracelet nor the earring.

Photography by Kristian.

This is yet another variation of a chain necklace using a rough silver-colored chain, purple silver-foil beads, and faceted amethyst beads. The colors are very similar to this earlier necklace, but the composition and materials is more similar to another pair of earlier necklaces.

Photography by Kristian.

As I have mentioned earlier, chain necklaces are ever popular and I have made several variations of these kind of necklaces. This is my latest version, for which I have created the chain by using links from three different chains, one with large round links, one with large oval links, and one with smaller slightly twisted links.

For this necklace I used champagne-colored round silver-foil beads, faceted rock crystal nuggets, and a champagne-colored silver-foil heart pendant. It is a bit different from other chain necklaces that I have made because of the lighter color scheme, but I think that it should look pretty good together with dark clothes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I hope that I will get the chance soon.

Photography by Kristian.