Monika Wiklund

Some time ago, I bought a string of bian spike beads and made a necklace with bian and lave stone beads, but I only used about half of the bian spikes for that necklace. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make another version of the necklace with the remaining bian stone beads, and this is how it turned out. It is pretty similar to the first necklace, but it gives a slightly different impression with the round sodalite beads instead of the lava stone cubes, and they also adds a bit of color to the necklace.

When I had  it on one day, I discovered that it was slightly longer than I wanted it to be, so one of these days I will remove a few beads from each end to make it  fit better. I guess that is one of those things you only notice when you wear the necklace with the right clothes…

Photography by Kristian.

Lately, I have been trying some new things and this is one of the results of my experiments. I found a web page (in swedish) describing how to sew beads together in different ways, and this necklace is the result of my first tries at the Nepal chain stitch and Mandala stitch.

The nepal chain is made from silver-lined darker and lighter purple seed beads, with the lighter purple seed beads as the stems and the darker purple seed beads as the flowers or leafs of the chain. I think that it turned out fairly well, and the color combination makes me think about heather in bloom.

For the Mandala flower, I used the same light and dark purple seed beads for the base, and then I added some garnet and amethyst beads to fill it out and make the flower more three-dimensional. The garnet and amethyst beads are not exactly the same colors as the seed beads, but I think this is adding to the three-dimensional effect.

Photography by Kristian.

This theme is linked to trees and flowers and other growing things. I used small round semi-precious stones with slightly varying colors but mostly in different shades of green, combined with metal charms in the shape of leaves or flowers to create this necklace.

The rectangular beads are green jasper, the larger round beads are green opals, and the smaller round beads consist of a mix of green jaspis, chalcedony, and tiger-eye.

The center-piece is a large metal leaf charm, surrounded by slightly smaller flower charms and more leaf charms evenly spaced out along the length of the necklace, and even the toggle clasp is following the theme.

Photography by Kristian.

I used a rather discrete color scheme for this necklace, using a combination of a gray stone pendant, facetted needle agate beads af slightly varying shades of gray, grayish blue glass beads, and a thick chain with antique finish. The stone pendant is not quite as dark as the picture implies, and I think that the necklace works very well in combination with dark clothing.

I am not quite sure what kind of stone the pendant is made of, but I really like the slightly uneven pattern and I think it is about the right size and color to combine it with the other stones and beads of the necklace.

Photography by Kristian.

This is a necklace made of amazonite, alexandrite, lava stone, and cinnabar together with silver-colored metal findings. in the lamp light I use while working on my jewellry, the amazonite and alexandrite seemed to be much closer in color than they actually are, so I was a bit surprised when I had completed the necklace and looked at it in another light. Even though it was kind of a mistake, I still like the contrast between the light purple of the alexandrite together with the light green of the amazonite, which is why I have not remade the necklace.

The pendant is a rectangular cinnabar bead with a dragon on either side, and I combined the amazonite and alexandrite with round and oval lava stone beads interspersed with the metal findings. The lock is a simple silver-colored toggle clasp, and the necklace is made with bead string.

Photography by Kristian.

Carved carnelian flower necklace

The carved carnelian flower is pretty large, and really draws attention to this necklace made of alternating red agate and carnelian nuggets on knotted string with a copper toggle clasp. The large flower is held in place by the small blue goldstone bead in the middle and by the knots behind  the flower.

Photography by Kristian.

I have made this necklace and bracelet specifically to match a white, brown, and purple skirt that I have. The minute I saw the brown and white stone beads, I knew they would be a perfect match for this skirt, and the amethyst nuggets perfected the match.

Colorful stone necklace

I am not sure what kind of stone the brown and white beads are, but I think they might be some kind of jaspis.

For the necklace I used one large amethyst nugget as a center piece, and smaller thinner nuggets with the holes at one end between each of the white and brown beads. Every second brown and white bead is coin shaped and the others are twisted ovals. For the hanging beads, I only used the coin-shaped beads.

Close-up of the necklace

The bracelet uses the same brown and white stone beads, but rather than the smaller amethyst nuggets, I used larger nuggets that are hanging from the bracelet between some of the brown and white beads.

Matching bracelet

The beads are linked with each other using eye pins, hat pins and some small rings.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace is made from pink opals and eye pins. the opal beads are round, oval, and tooth-shaped, and they have been put together in a chain with the eye pins. It is not visible on this picture, but the clasp is a silver-colored toggle clasp decorated with leafs.

Pink opal necklace

The teeth in the necklace have been selected so that the largest tooth is in the middle and the smallest are close to the clasp, and they are interspersed between the round and oval beads. Closest to the clasp there are only the round and oval beads, and no teeth.

Photography by Kristian.

The the white fresh-water pearls and the rectangular lapiz lazuli beads create a nice contrast to each other, and the heart-shaped bead cage with a round sodalite bead gives the necklace a very nice focus.

It is not a very long necklace, but it is still too large for this model

Closeup of the charm, alarge, round sodalite bead in a silver-plated heart shaped bead cage.

Pictures by Kristian.

Here is a copper chain necklace made from a simple copper chain and a few larger copper chain links.  I have a dded a couple of flat zebra onyx rings, some smaller round brown and black speckled stone beads that I don’t remember the name of, and a few copper filigree beads. The pendant is made from a large, flat, slightly curved zebra onyx bead.

Picture by Kristian.