Monika Wiklund

It took quite some time for me to complete this necklace, not because it is a difficult pattern but because I ran out of the matte purple seed beads when I had made a little bit more than half the necklace and it took me quite some time to find the same color and size of seed beads again. Unfortunately I didn’t quite succeed regarding the size of the seed beads so I ended up starting over from the beginning again anyway but I still like the result.

If I recall correctly, I got the idea to create a tubular netting necklace with a large bead inserted into the tube while I was trying to figure out what to do with his large oval-shaped paua bead and I noticed that this mix of purple seed beads matched the colors of the bead very well and I figured that it would create an interesting effect to put the paua bead inside a tubular net like this. It was a bit tricky to build the tubular net around the bead, but I think that the result was well worth the effort.

Photography by Kristian.

I came up with the idea for this necklace because I had bought a string of seashell spikes and wanted to find something to combine them with. When I started looking through my fresh-water pearls I realized that I had some nuggets and blister pearls of varying sizes that matched the color of the seashell spikes, and since I wanted to achieve a bit of volume for the necklace between the spikes I decided to use three threads and weave them between the beads.

The spikes are a bit unruly and sometimes wants to point in their own directions, but once you have managed to get them under control I think that it creates a very nice effect with the uneven beads interspersed with seashell spikes. At first I was a bit worried that I would not like the end result, but once I had completed the necklace and tried it on I found that I am very happy with the result and have already started to use it.

Photography by Kristian.

Even though this seashell pendant is pretty big, this has quickly become one of my favorite necklaces. I knew that it was a large seashell pendant when I ordered it, but I did not realize just how big until I received it.

Like with some of my earlier seashell necklaces, I created a seed bead frame for the seashell pendant, and in this case I also made the pattern go all the way around to cover the back of the seashell which is kind of neat since it does not matter which side of the pendant that is showing. This necklace is a perfect match for one of my sweaters, and I have used it several times.

Photography by Kristian.

I am very happy with how this necklace turned out, and especially with the random pattern that I created with the seed beads as I went along. This is not the first example of using a seed bead frame for a seashell pendant that I have made, but in my earlier versions I have combined the pendants with other type of necklaces rather than with a tubular peyote necklace.

When I made the necklace, I started with the white seashell pendant and I decided that I wanted to put in a frame that would bring the mind to think of the sea. I selected two shades of blue and one shade of trey for the colors, and started to sew the frame using the peyote stitch. At first, I had a bit of trouble with the shape of the seashell pendant, but when I started from the edge of the pendant and worked inward it was easier to adjust the shape of the frame.  Once the pendant was done, I still had some seed beads left, and I decided to make a necklace of tubular peyote to go with the pendant and I think that they work perfectly together.

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.

This necklace started as an experiment in making a flower out of these flat, drop-shaped seashell beads. I used illusion cord to sew the flower together, and put one silver-colored glass bead on each side of the flower to keep the petals flat and to add a bit of contrast to the brown seashell beads.

Once I had the flower figured out, I started thinking about how to combine the flowers and make a necklace, and pretty soon I came to the conclusion that a nepal chain would make a nice complement to the flowers. The nepal chain is wide enough to be noticed between the flowers but not so big that it takes the focus from the seashell flowers. Of course, I wanted the colors of the chain to match the colors of the flowers, but to make it a bit more interesting I inverted the colors so that I made the “stems” of the chain brown and the “flowers” silver-colored.

I think that it is a pretty good concept for a necklace  and I really like the color combination, but it was a bit difficult to get the flowers even, especially the first ones I made. Also, the nepal chain tends to twist around a bit and not stay flat like it is supposed to, but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, but rather I think that it adds  to the charm of the necklace.

Photography by Kristian.

I bought this seashell pendant because I liked the shifting colors and the cut out pattern but I had a bit of problem figuring out what to do with it since I found it a bit flat and boring to use as a pendant by itself. It took a while, but finally I decided to sew a seed bead frame around it using the peyote stitch.

As you can see in the picture, there is a zig zag pattern with black and white seed beads at the front, but the pattern is gradually fading as it passes around the edge and to the back of the pendant which is completely covered by the seed beads.

When I had completed the frame, I had a pretty vague idea that I wanted to use it in a long necklace and that the necklace should not draw the attention from the pendant. After some searching among all my beads and chains, I found this simple chain and decided to add a few raw chalcedony nuggets to make this necklace.

I think that the different materials go very well together, and I have found out that the color scheme makes it possible to combine with almost any colors since the chalcedony nuggets are slightly transparent and they let through and brings out the color of the clothes.

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.

For this necklace, I wanted to make a “frame” for the heart-shaped seashell pendant using black and silver-colored seed beads. At first, I tried using peyote stitch but that did not work very well so I decided to go for the RAW stitch instead. It was a bit tricky to get it together, and it took some experimenting to get it right, but I really like the result.

From the start I was considering making a necklace from seed beads as well, but when I had completed the frame of the pendant I realized that it would steal the focus of the pendant, so I went for a simple suede string necklace instead and made a seed bead bracelet to go with the necklace. Even though I used the RAW stitch for the pendant frame, I used the peyote stitch for the bracelet and used some more suede string as the core of the bracelet.

Photography by Kristian.

This is a little longer “chain” necklace of dark blue, oval seashell beads, round coral beads, and seashell flower beads that I made from the materials left over when I created my first coral and seashell flower necklace. The two different necklaces use basically the same beads, but the implementation and end results are very different.

In this picture, the beads are shown in more detail, showing the shimmer of the seashell beads and the texture of the coral beads as well as how they have been made into a chain with the help of eye pins.

Photography by Kristian.