Monika Wiklund

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.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Sirlig pärlor once again has started a design contest, this time with the theme “Harmony”. At first I was not sure whether I wanted to participate or not, but after some thinking I decided to give it a try and to use this necklace as my contribution.

The necklace is a fairly long chain necklace with gold-colored links of different sizes and shapes in combination with large rectangular african jade beads, smaller faceted raw emeralds, large donuts of kambaba jaspis, and a dark brown wooden pendant with a flower pattern in lighter brown and a raw emerald. Although the different stones are quite different in structure, size and shape, I think that the different shades of green harmonizes with the brown of the pendant and the golden color of the metal links and I think that it fits very well with the theme of the design contest.

To be honest I did not create this necklace specifically for the contest, rather I made it to wear with the dress I borrowed for my sister’s medieval fantasy themed wedding. The dress I borrowed was a dark brown wool dress with details in dark green and a white shift underneath, that is, the same colors that I used for the necklace.

Here is a picture of me and Kristian from the wedding where I was wearing the dress for which I made the necklace, the details are a bit small but it is possible to recognize the necklace if you click the picture to see a bigger one.

Photography by Kristian (and a friend).

This has become one of my favorite chain necklaces and I have used it several times already. Most of the materials that I used for this necklace have been lying around, waiting for me to use them for some time now, especially the large silver-foil pendant that was much larger than I had expected when I ordered it and the large black stone beads that I have been trying to figure out what to do with them since I got them.

At last I came up with this idea, and I am very happy that it turned out so well. I like the combination of large beads and thick metal links, and I think that these different materials go very well together. As I often do, I created the chain by using links from three different chains and also added the large flower shaped links since I wanted an even bigger and heavier chain to go with the large beads and the heavy pendant. This is a pretty big and perhaps a bit heavy necklace, but I love the shape and the colors and I hope to use it many more times.

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.

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.

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.

As I have mentioned earlier, chain necklaces are ever popular and I have made several variations of these kind of necklaces. This is my latest version, for which I have created the chain by using links from three different chains, one with large round links, one with large oval links, and one with smaller slightly twisted links.

For this necklace I used champagne-colored round silver-foil beads, faceted rock crystal nuggets, and a champagne-colored silver-foil heart pendant. It is a bit different from other chain necklaces that I have made because of the lighter color scheme, but I think that it should look pretty good together with dark clothes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I hope that I will get the chance soon.

Photography by Kristian.

What makes this necklace different from other chain necklaces I have made is the beaded ball pendant that I made from 30 cube beads. I wanted to make a chain necklace from the green silver-foil beads that I had lying around, but I had nothing that I could use as a pendant and since I had some small cube beads in the same color I decided to try out the beaded ball description I had found a bit earlier.

I think that the beaded ball turned out very well, and that it fits in nicely with the rest of the necklace but it was a bit tricky to get the shape as close to round as was possible.

As you can see in the first picture, this is a fairly short chain necklace which is why I also added a small toggle clasp in the shape of a padlock.

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.

As you might have noticed, I have made a lot of chain necklaces, partly because they are relatively easy to make and partly because chain necklaces are pretty popular so that I don’t have that many left anyway. This one is made from a thin chain with ovals and rings, some pretty nice metal cage links, mint-green silver-foil beads, and with a mint-green silver-foil heart as a pendant. Even though most of the necklaces are following the same pattern there is some variation in the colors, size and shape of the chains, and in the materials for most of the necklaces.

This is a close-up of the pendant and part of the chain of the necklace, it is a bit light, but I think that the color is pretty close to the real thing.

Photography by Kristian.