Monika Wiklund

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.

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.

This is an illusion cord necklace, but it is very similar in style to some string necklaces that I have posted about earlier. I have made necklaces with illusion cord  earlier, but I do not think that I have posted any of them here. In my earlier version I have mostly used fresh-water pearls, while this necklace is based on seashell and stone beads and have the further addition of the flowers and little hearts as a focus in the front.

If I remember correctly, one of the flowers is made of obsidian and the other is made of black stone but unfortunately I cannot remember which one is which. The round beads are a mixture of obsidian, white jade and seashell beads, while the small hearts are glass beads with a black lining or filling. The smaller flower is originally made to hang from the larger flower together with the small hearts, but when I used the necklace for the first time I realized that it looks much better to hang it over the illusion cords next to the larger flower but I have not fastened it, which makes it possible to choose how to wear it.

I love the contrast between the black and the white beads and also the floating effect that is created by the illusion cord. Perhaps I could have made the necklace a little bit shorter, but I don’t think it is too long to use and I have used it myself several times.

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.

Pink and purple usually go well together, and this necklace is made of rose quartz, amethyst, and garnet beads combined with a mix of other pink and purple beads that have been left over from earlier projects. The necklace is based on the RAW stitch, but in the final row I added one extra bead to each group of four to create the flower patten that you can see in this picture.

I like the flower pattern effect, but there are a bit to many extra beads in the final row, which causes the necklace to curl up a bit instead of lying flat around the neck. As usual when I use the RAW stitch with semi-precious stone beads, I choose to use illusion cord rather than thread since the thread tends to break more easily if the edges of the holes in the beads are a bit sharp.

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.

I have already mentioned this bracelet in an earlier post, but since I did not have a picture of the bracelet at that time I decided to post this now.

This bracelet is made using the same technique as the earlier post, but this bracelet is wider with three rows of beads of varying sizes instead of only one as in the first necklace. Using larger beads in the middle row gives the bracelet a slightly rounded contour, and I think that it adds a lot to the overall impression. Of course, it is possible to use the two bracelets together and I think that they also fit pretty well together with the stone necklace I posted about a few posts back.

Photography by Kristian.

These blue and gold dice beads have been lying around waiting to be used for some time now. I bought them because I thought they were kind of cute, but then I didn’t get around to actually using them until recently when I was trying to figure out what to do with some other left-over beads.

This is the result, a combination of round and dice-shaped blue and gold glass beads, small tube-shaped gold colored spacer beads, round dark blue glass beads and gold-sand beads, round blue cloisonne beads, and some rectangular lapiz lazuli beads. The beads I had were just enough to make this necklace and a matching bracelet, but I only have pictures of the necklace.

The round and dice-shaped beads are not quite as transparent when you look at them in normal light, but I like the way the flash lights them up in these pictures.

Photography by Kristian.

 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.

I think that lava stone beads work very well in combination with different semi-precious stones and I have made several necklaces using this theme. The earlier necklaces have been in more discrete colors, but I really like this combination of bright red coral and matte black  lava stone together with the heart shaped cinnabar pendant.

For this necklace, I used three different sizes of coral beads and two sizes of lava stone beads together with some cute metal spacers and a simple round toggle clasp. I really like the colors and the beautiful flower pattern of the pendant, but for some reason I haven’t used this necklace very much so far.

Photography by Kristian.