Monika Wiklund

 I made this collar necklace as a variation of this stone necklace that I posted about a little while back. The earlier necklace was made almost entirely of round stone beads, and I figured it would be a good idea to try out the same technique with beads of different shapes as well.

For this necklace, I used hematite cube beads, matte round onyx beads, faceted hematite-colored glass beads, and some round black and silver desert sand beads. I think that the combination of round, faceted and cubic beads works perfectly together, and I especially like the contrast between the matte onyx beads and the shiny hematite. 

As with the previous necklace, I used the RAW stitch for this neckalce and the different sizes of the beads also helped create the rounded shape that fits perfectly around the neck.

Photography by Kristian.

This is yet another chain necklace, but compared with the last one this is much bigger and with a bit of a rough feeling to it. I used a pretty big gray silver-foil heart as a pendant, added some rough flat silver-foil beads in the same color together with a few diagonal hematite squares with small round purple amethyst beads inside, and joined the parts together with a simple and slightly rough chain.

The result was this rough and simple, yet somehow elegant necklace, and I really like the combination of the rough silver-foil beads together with the more delicate and elegant hematite and amethyst beads.

Photography by Kristian.

I figured that this glass pendant with a pattern of black, white and gold would fit pretty well together with these onyx beads, and since I had just tried out my Thing-a-ma-jig and made some metal links, I also wanted to use them for a necklace. After trying a few different combinations, I came up with this necklace and I think that it looks pretty good. The necklace is combined from a pretty thick chain, onyx coins, onyx lanterns, two different types of metal links, and a glass pendant with a smaller round onyx bead at the top.

I think that it is a bit tricky to make the metal links in the Thing-a-ma-jig so that they will hold the weight of the necklace and not bend out of shape too easily if the necklace gets caught in something, but I suppose that is mostly a matter of using thicker wire. These links turned out fairly ok, but it is definitely something I will have to keep practicing.

Photography by Kristian.

When I first made this necklace, I was a bit worried that it might be a bit too red and orange and that I would never be able to use it, but once I tried it on I found that it works very well with my coloring and especially if I use it together with dark or discretely colored clothing. Now this is one of my favorite necklaces, although I guess that really doesn’t say much considering how many necklaces I have…

The necklace is made of a mix of red agate and carnelian beads of different shapes and sizes, the small round beads and the rectangular beads are carnelian and the rest of the beads are made of red agate. It is made by using two strings and threading both strings through every second bead and threading them separately through two different beads in between. One of the strings is also threaded through the pendant with a carnelian bead at the bottom to keep it in place.

Photography by Kristian.

I am almost always on the lookout for new types of chains, and I was very happy when I found the copper chain that I have used in this necklace. For some reason I have not had much luck with finding many variations of copper chains earlier, and this chain is a lot more interesting than the ones I had before. The colors of the copper goes very well with the red-brown round agate beads and the orange-red of the agate rings and the pendant, and the small delicate copper flowers also adds something extra. This is definitely one of my favorite necklaces, and I have used it several times already.

Photography by Kristian.

I made this necklace to go with a white top with a pattern of small blue flowers of several shades. It is a pretty short and thin necklace, and it is almost a perfect match for the top.

The idea came to me when I was looking at the small, flat, oval lapiz lazuli beads, and I was trying to think of something to do with them. I started to look through my always increasing collection of beads and I came up with the small, faceted, rectangular zebra jasper beads and figured that the combination might look good with the top I mentioned earlier. To create some distance between the different beads, I added the “double” metal spacers and finally I selected a simple magnetic clasp to complete the necklace without drawing attention to the clasp.

This is a very simple necklace, but the material and combination of the beads create a complexity of its own and I am very happy with the result.

Photography by Kristian.

Here is another chain necklace that I have made. I have lost count of how many versions of chain necklaces I have made, but it seems there is always some new materials and variations to try and also the chain necklaces are pretty popular so I tend to not keep them for very long. This is a fairly simple combination of a thick silver-colored chain, some small round and triangular moss agate beads, and a larger moss agate pendant.

I like the dark green color and the moss-like threaded pattern in the moss agate, and I think that they look pretty good with the thick chain even if the small round beads are barely noticeable in comparison with the chain and the larger triangular beads.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace together with one I will post about later were both made as birthday gifts to my husbands aunt for her 60th birthday, and since I do not meet her very often I acquired the help of my husbands cousin in order to pick a suitable style for the necklaces. She helped me a great deal and this necklace is a variation of an earlier necklace I made with fresh-water pearls, lapiz lazuli, and a sodalite pendant that she believed would be appreciated.

I had  given away the earlier necklace to a friend, and thus I made this new variation where I used a drop-shaped lapiz lazuli pendant in a large round beads cage and placed a flower-adorned clasp next to the pendant at the front of the necklace. The clasp is turned the wrong way in the picture but it is still possible to see the outline of the flower and leaves.

Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the party myself, but I have been told that she appreciated the gift.

Here is a close-up of the lapiz lazuli drop pendant in the simple round spiral bead cage.

Photography by Kristian.

If you have looked around a bit among my earlier posts, you might have realized that I like to work with natural materials such as lava stone, semi-precious stones, coral and wood and this is another example, using lava stone and emerald nuggets. Not too long ago, I found these emerald nuggets in one of the online bead stores where I shop for beads some now and then and I just had to buy a string and see what I could make of them.

Since the emerald nuggets are dark green with even darker, almost black patterns I decided to combine them with some lava stone beads to make this necklace here I have used one of the nuggets as a pendant and a few other mixed in with the round and barrel-shaped lava stone beads and silver-colored bead caps to make the base of the necklace. I am pretty satisfied with the result even though I think it might have been even better with a slightly larger nugget for the pendant.

After I had completed this necklace I had the opportunity to visit the physical store where I bought the emerald nuggets, and I bought another string of smaller emerald nuggets that I have yet to use. I think that I will combine the different sized nuggets and create something with more emeralds in, but I have not quite finished my mental picture of that design yet.

Photography by Kristian.

As you might have noticed, I like semi-precious stones and minerals, and in this case I have used tigereye, tiger iron, and lava stone beads to make a fairly long necklace with a heart-shaped tigereye pendant.

The oval long beads down close by the pendant are the tiger iron beads, the rest are tigereye or lava stone beads with metal bead caps. Perhaps the pendant is a bit small for the length of the necklace, I might consider remaking it some time and make it slightly shorter as well as maybe move the tiger iron beads farther away from the pendant. Otherwise I think that the beads fit fairly well together, and I was rather happy to try the tigereye cube beads with the diagonal holes. I found them in the form of a necklace at a local store close to my work, and I love the luster of the beads so I bought a necklace that I have taken apart for the beads.

This picture gives a closer view of the pendant where the shifting colors of the tigereye can be seen quite clearly.

Photography by Kristian.