Monika Wiklund

This necklace was created as a side-effect of our preparations for going to Medeltidsveckan in Visby this summer. I was looking for beads to try out some different ideas for medieval styled jewelry, and among other things I found these turquoise clay beads that I bought because I liked the color.

When I started to make the necklace, I realized that I was exactly one metal bead short of being able to use all of the clay beads and when I was looking for ways to work around that little problem, I found a blue glass leaf that I have had for some time and never used. I decided to use the leaf as a pendant, and I think that it turned out very well even though the pendant is not exactly the same color as the clay beads.

Of course, the necklace does not match the medieval style clothing that I made for medeltidsveckan,  but I think that it works great together with a turquoise blouse that I have used it together with.

Photography by Kristian.

When I made this necklace, I was trying to make something to go with some medieval/viking style clothing that I am working on, and I selected these large glass beads and metal beads together with my sister who knows more about the style than I do. I know that these beads are probably not historically correct, but that is not very important to me since I only wanted to create something that emulates the medieval style rather than something that is completely correct.

The large metal rose pendant is very cute and I think that it is great in combination with the other beads in the necklace and even though I made this necklace with medieval style clothing in mind, I think that it also very easy to match with modern clothing and it has become one of my favorite necklaces.

Photography by Kristian.

These copper spiral tubes are very striking and I think that they can be combined with most anything. As you might have seen among my earlier posts, I have made a couple of other variations of this theme using both copper tubes and silver-colored tubes and different types of stones, and this is my latest version in which I have combined spiral copper tubes with small copper beads and diagonal rutil quartz cube beads.

I think that it is interesting to try different combinations of colors, materials, and shapes of beads to see how it affects the end result, in some cases a seemingly small change can make a whole lot of difference. In this case, I like the variation with cube beads but I think that perhaps another material or color of the beads would have made for an even better result together with the copper tubes.

Photography by Kristian.

I really like these twisted metal pipes, and even though this is a very simple pattern and not that different from an earlier necklace that I ave already posted about, it is still possible to make many variations of the theme and I think that this one turned out very well.

This version is made with two different sizes of faceted stone beads, placed three and three between the twisted metal pipes with a larger stone bead in the middle and one smaller bead to either side. I am not sure if it is a correct name but the stone beads were called cinnamon stones when I bought them, which I assume refers to the very nice golden brown color of the stones. As you can see, the colors vary quite a bit from an almost transparent golden color to a pretty dark cinnamon one.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace is another version of this necklace, but with silver-colored pipes and red agate beads instead of copper pipes and sodalite beads. I think that the contrast between the orange red beads and the silver-colored metal pipes creates a very nice combination, even though the necklace in itself is very simple. In this case, I used wire as the base of the necklace since the edges of the pipes was a bit sharp and uneven which makes it impractical to use string or thread.

Photography by Kristian.

This is a pretty simple necklace made of sodalite and lava-stone beads interspersed with copper-colored spacers and pipes. The slightly twisted pipes creates a three-dimensional effect that is what makes the necklace noticeable. The twists can be seen in the picture, but it is even more evident in reality. Unfortunately I discovered that the holes in the beads and in the spacers are larger than the outer dimension of the pipes,  something that causes the beads and spacers to move along the pipes unless I use glue to stabilize them.

Photography by Kristian.

Bracelet made of memory wire with curved metal pipes, blue and red glass beads, pearl cages, small hematite hearts and stars, small metal flowers, and a small metal teddy bear and a fish charm at each end.