Monika Wiklund

I made this necklace to use with a pale green cocktail dress for an agent-themed party that we were invited to earlier this year. The plan was to achieve something that would fit into a James Bond movie, and I think that this necklace is a pretty good approximation considering what I had to work with and how much time I had to come up with something.

The necklace is made using the RAW technique and consists of different sized metal spacers and pale green transparent semi-precious beads with a few larger faceted rock crystal beads in the center. There is also a matching bracelet which I do not have any pictures of but I think that both the necklace and the bracelet fit perfectly together with the cocktail dress and we had a great time at the party.

Photography by Kristian.

For some reason, I don’t always post pictures of the bracelets I have made, even if I post pictures of the matching necklace but here is an exception.

This is a variation on a RAW bracelet, where I have used a combination of round gold-colored metal beads and fresh-water pearls. For the center of the bracelet I used small rice-shaped pearls and for the edges I used side-drilled coin-shaped pearls to make them stick out farther to the sides which creates this simple but elegant pattern.

I started with making this bracelet since I did not have enough rice-shaped beads to make a necklace, but I have since bought some slightly larger pearls and made a matching necklace. However, there are no pictures available yet, hopefully I will be able to post a picture later.

Photography by Kristian.

As you might have noticed in some of my earlier works, I like to use contrasting colors in my necklaces and this is no exception. I also like to work with semi-precious stones and in this case I have used a combination of onyx, turquoise, and hematite beads that contrast very nicely with each other.

It is a very simple pattern with the different colored beads moving between the three strands between the large ornamented sliders, but I think that the result is very stylish and elegant if a bit large and with a slight medieval touch to it.

Photography by Kristian.

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.

The moment I saw these twisted metal links and the spiral pendant I was in love. I found them this spring when I went to “Syfestivalen” with my sister and of course I had to buy some links and a pendant to try and make something of. Of course, I also found the rectangular stone beads at “Syfestivalen” but from another company. If I remember correctly, the stone beads are charoite and I love the structure and shifting purple and white color.

As usual, I had no real plans for which beads to use together when I bought them, but once I got home and started to plan out a necklace with the metal links and pendant I realized that the charoite stone beads fit perfectly with the links and with this thick metal chain that I already had in my stores. I am very happy with the resulting necklace, and I have even thought about buying more of the metal links and pendants to make copies or variations of the theme.

Photography by Kristian.

I found these hexagonal jaspis and hematite beads once when I went to “Symässan” in Stockholm, and I think that they fit very well together in this combination with small round beads. I particularly like the structure of the net-like pattern of the jaspis and how it contrasts with the shiny gray hematite beads and clasp (the clasp is not visible in this picture but it is also made of hematite).

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace is mostly just a color variation of an earlier necklace that I have posted about. It is a tubular net made of black, gray and pink seed beads  combined with a small pink angel charm.

There are a few minor differences in this necklace compared to the previous version, for example the tubular netting part is slightly shorter than the previous version and the ends are made of thin chain rather than fitting the clasp directly to the ends, and the dark gray seed beads in the intersections between the pink and the black parts of the net are bigger than the other beads.

I am not quite satisfied with how the tubular net ended up a bit uneven and slightly irregular, but I suppose that it is mainly me that notices the irregularities and I kind of like the colors so I have used it a few times anyway.

Photography by Kristian.

I think that I made this necklace sometime before Christmas, but I have not gotten around to posting about it until now. It is a fairly simple chain link necklace made of green agate and flower shaped links. The agate beads are linked into the chain by using eye pins and as you might already have guessed, I choose the green beads as a contrast to the flower links because the color made me think about leaves.

Perhaps it would have been better to only use one kind of flower links, but I did not have enough of either of the links to make a whole necklace unless I combined them like this, and I am very happy with the result.

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.

Here is a very simple but at the same time cute and stylish necklace and bracelet that I made a couple of months ago. When  I made this, I had just made several seed bead necklaces with different types stitches and wanted to make something that was a bit simpler so I went for this single strand glass bead necklace.

I used a combination of black and purple faceted glass beads together with metal spacers and some smaller purple seed beads, and I think that the colors fit very well together with each other.  Perhaps the necklace should have been slightly longer, but I have used it a couple of times anyway and I think that it is a very nice necklace.

Photography by Kristian.