Monika Wiklund

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.

It has been a little while since my latest post, but I still have plenty of jewelry to post about. This one is definitely a favorite among my latest designs, a dark chain necklace with a hematite ankh pendant and a combination of metal flower links and diagonal hematite squares with red agate beads.

I created the chain by rebuilding a chain with double links since I think that it was a bit too much with doubled rings in each link. As you can see, the chain is dark gray and almost exactly the same color as the hematite which means that the red agate create a very nice contrast to the gray metal. The metal flower link right above the pendant is slightly larger than the rest, and since the ankh pendant is pretty thick and did not have any other holes I used a piece of suede string to fasten it to the flower link.

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.

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.

A simple but elegant necklace made from 4 and 6 mm round moss agate beads and wavy metal links. The color of the beads vary from an almost transparent grayish white to dark green, and the darker areas look a little bit like moss-like threads. I think that it is a great combination for a necklace, but I have to work on how to combine the links with the beads without getting them caught in each other and getting the links stuck the wrong way.

Photography by Kristian.

This is a rather delicate chain necklace made from a thin metal chain with small flower links and some pale blue silver-foil beads. It is not very long, and because of this and the lightness of the chain, I believe that it might be suited for a young girl.

I buy most of my materials online, even though I love being able to touch and feel and look at the beads I buy if I get a chance, and so also with this chain. Sometimes what you get when you buy materials online is not quite what you expected, and if I recall correctly I thought this chain would be slightly larger, but I think this necklace turned out fairly well anyway. It is  challenging and exiting when you get some materials that are not quite what you expected, and I love to expand my horizons and try new things with them.

Of course, most of the time I don’t really have a plan when I buy different materials anyway, or only a very vague idea of what I would like to do with them. It is when you have everything in front of you and you start combining things and look at what you already have that the ideas come.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The reddish brown twisted, oval mookaite beads add a bit of color to this necklace. The chain is combined from short lengths of a thin triangular chain, single links of oval angle cut chain, single links of a heart chain, and a flower shaped link. A large metal leaf pendant completes the necklace and adds to the length.

Picture by Kristian.