Monika Wiklund

This necklace represents my first try at using the african helix stitch, but I do not think that it turned out very well. It is possible to get an idea of what it is supposed to look like, but the seed beads I used were too uneven to make a very good result with this technique. I think that it would look really cool if I used a better quality of seed beads, so I am pretty sure I will try it again but it takes a while to make a necklace like this, so I am not sure when I will get around to it.

Photography by Kristian.

This is a very simple variation of a peyote stitch necklace using beads of different sizes to create the spiral pattern along the necklace. Earlier, I have made a peyote stitch bracelet with equal sized beads, but the spiral pattern is more striking when using larger beads to edge the spiral like in this necklace.

I used small light purple seed beads for the parts between the spiral, slightly larger white seed beads on either side of the spiral, and for the spiral itself I used dark seed beads with a rainbow shine close to the clasp, then a small section of 3 mm magnetite beads, and in the center I used flat circular magnetite beads with rainbow finish to make the spiral pattern stand out even more.

This necklace is definitely my favorite among the seed bead torc necklaces that I have made so far, and I think that it it very cool in its simplicity.

I found this picture of me wearing the spiral torc necklace and thought it might give a better illustration of what it looks like. It fits very well  together with this black dress with a pattern of pink and purple flowers.

Photography by Kristian.

Here is another version of this purple seed bead necklace that I posted about a while ago, but in blue instead of purple. Of course, the pattern is not quite the same in this necklace, I used slightly smaller seed beads in this version and I selected the colors to match the hues of the blue resin pendant. The darkest of the seed beads are selected to match the color of the faceted glass beads and to contrast to the lighter blue shades of the pendant. A cute detail is the small apple blossom clasp that I picked because I think that it matches the flower pendant.

This is a close-up of the very cute blue flower pendant with the apple blossom clasp in the background. It is also possible to see the small faceted glass beads with dark blue filling that I used as spacers between the different sections of the seed bead patterns.

Photography by Kristian.

Like so many other things, this necklace started as an experiment because I wanted to try out the herring-bone stitch that I found a description of when I was looking around for new techniques. From the description, I figured that it would look pretty cool as a torc, so I started making a herring-bone stitch cord with a 6 bead circumference using three different colors, dark blue, light blue, and light green.

To make the pattern a bit more interesting, I moved the colors in a circular pattern around the cord as I worked, which created the spiral pattern that you can see in the picture. After a little while, it got a bit difficult to work with the empty cord so I started using a piece of suede string as a center. When the necklace was finished I left the center in, and used it for attaching the hook clasp.

I think that this necklace turned out fairly well for a first attempt. It is a bit on the short side for me, but my son loves it and has claimed it as his own.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace is made from two a white and a green jablonex seed bead mix using the Apache leaf stitch. I wanted the leaves in the necklace to stand out from each other and look like leaves in a garland, which is why I used alternately seed beads from the white and the green mix, and why each leaf is made from the same color of beads.

I think that it turned out pretty well, even though the sizes of the beads vary slightly between the different colors in the mixes so not all leaves are the same size. For the clasp, I used a small round magnetic lock which is fastened through the last seed bead on each end of the garland.

Photography by Kristian.

Angel necklaces are very popular, and I think that this is my fifth or sixth variation of the theme. I think that I have only posted one of them here earlier, but the other ones are very similar except for the color and small variations of the beads. The one I posted earlier is blue, and the other variations are in different shades of pink and purple but are otherwise very much alike the blue one, except that I used angels instead of  glass-foil hearts in those necklaces.

The main differences between this necklace and the earlier ones are that I found a new version of angel wings with the cute little hearts in the middle, that I used another kind of seed beads that are larger than in the earlier necklaces, and I used bugle beads as well in this necklace.  also, as you might notice, the head of the pendant angel is different from the rest because I only had four of the red faceted glass bead, and I decided to go with a faceted blue gold-sand bead  for the pendant angel rather than try to find something of the same color.

This is a close-up of one of the matching earrings that I made for the necklace. Of course, since I do not have any holes in my ears I cannot use them myself, but I think that they are very cute anyway.

Photography by Kristian.

This is another one of my experiments with seed beads, using the RAW stitch to make a torque-like necklace.

I started with creating a “ladder” with twisted black bugle beads and metallic pink seed beads, and then I figured it would look pretty nice if the torque was wider in the front so I added a couple of rows of the small black glass cube beads to create the rounded shape of the necklace and widen it and then I added the final row of bugle beads, but I had to add a few extra seed beads between each bugle bead to keep the rounded  torque shape.

Unfortunately it seems that the metallic pink color of the seed beads rubbed off a bit as I worked so many of the seed beads turned out more silver-colored than pink before I was done. I suppose I have to make sure that I use better seed beads the next time I try something like this…

The result did not quite turn out as even as I would have wanted, but I believe that it is a nice concept. Of course, it took a bit of time to stitch the beads together, and it also required a slightly larger amount of beads than is needed for a “normal” necklace but I am fairly certain that I will try something like this again.

Photography by Kristian.

For this necklace, I wanted to make a “frame” for the heart-shaped seashell pendant using black and silver-colored seed beads. At first, I tried using peyote stitch but that did not work very well so I decided to go for the RAW stitch instead. It was a bit tricky to get it together, and it took some experimenting to get it right, but I really like the result.

From the start I was considering making a necklace from seed beads as well, but when I had completed the frame of the pendant I realized that it would steal the focus of the pendant, so I went for a simple suede string necklace instead and made a seed bead bracelet to go with the necklace. Even though I used the RAW stitch for the pendant frame, I used the peyote stitch for the bracelet and used some more suede string as the core of the bracelet.

Photography by Kristian.

My first try at making a tubular peyote bracelet using the uneven peyote stitch technique.  I wanted to try to make something using the tubular technque because I thought it would create a nice effect, but at the same time I thought it was best to start small since I had a limited supply of seed beads and because I wanted to see the result fairly quickly. I started stitching around a plastic chop stick, but it kept falling out so I replaced it with the leather band which I also used for a very simple clasp.

In the beginning, I was not quite sure how  the pattern would turn out, and it took a couple of tries to figure out what happens with the different layers, but I think that it turned out fairly well considering that I am new to the technique.

Photography by Kristian.

This bracelet represents one of my first tries at sewing with beads, using the RAW (right angle weave) stitch for the bracelet and the mandala stitch for the flower.  I am not entirely happy with how it turned out, but I think I learned a few thing by making it, among other things I realised that it is easier to make the parts separately and sew them together when all parts are done rather than try to sew everything together at once.

Overall, I think that the flower turned out ok, but the bracelet could have been better and more even around the flower. The clasp side of the bracelet is not visible in the picture, but I used a cylinder shaped magnetic clasp that was intended for a three-stringed necklace or bracelet, that I sewed into the bracelet after completing the pattern.

Photography by Kristian.