Monika Wiklund

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.

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.

This is my second version of a herring-bone stitch necklace. The first version was thicker and resulted in a rounded cord but in this case the circumference of the cord consists of only four beads which gives it a squared shape.

The herring-bone pattern of the beads is highlighted by the pink bugle beads as well as by the combination of matte pink and shiny purple beads in a slightly irregular pattern of bands along the necklace.

In this picture it is easy to see the squared shape of the cord, as well as the herring-bone pattern that is created by the technique.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace represents my second try at using the african helix stitch. In my first try with this technique, I learned that it is very important to use seed beads of equal size to achieve a nice and even necklace, and as you can see this necklace looks much better because I used a slightly better quality of beads.

For this necklace I used a base of matte white seed beads for the inner spirals and for the outer spirals I used opaque turquoise  seed beads and seed beads with a light blue core. The clasp is a cute flower shaped toggle clasp and I also added a stone pendant with colors of brownish red and green and turquoise that I think matches the colors of the outer spirals of the helix. Overall, it is a pretty simple necklace that is easy to match with different types and colors of clothes.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace represents my first try at the spiral rope technique, and I think that it turned out pretty well together with this small angel charm. As you can see, I used a combination of blue and silver-colored seed beads for the necklace and light blue glass beads for the angel.

I used a slight variation of the spiral rope where I attached the charm, rather than continue the spiral in the same direction all the way around, I made a kind of a “v” in front when i changed the direction of the spiral and went back through the same beads before continuing the spiral in the new direction. Both the technique in itself and the turn are very simple to use, and I think I will most likely try it again with other colors and sizes of beads.

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.

This necklace is at the same time a variation of an old idea and an experiment with a for me new stitch. The earlier versions of angel necklaces that I have made have consisted of a single threaded necklace with an angel pendant, but I wanted to create something with a bit more volume to it, so I decided to try making a necklace with the tubular net stitch this time.

I had a bit of a problem picking out the colors of the necklace since I realized a bit too late that the sees beads I had were not always matched in size or even enough to use for this purpose, but finally I decided to go for this combination of white, black and pink. At first I was a bit skeptical about the colors, but they grew on me and I think that the end result is pretty good. Of course, the pink highlights in the tubular netting necklace are not very clearly visible, but I think that they work very well in combination with the mostly black and white net and of course they are matched with the small angel charm as well.

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.

I have made a few seed bead torc necklaces before this one, including a peyote spiral torc necklace that I have posted about earlier. This necklace is also a peyote spiral made of different sizes of blue seed beads, but every now and then I have reversed the direction of the spiral to achieve a more back and forth pattern.

The pattern is not that obvious in the photo since there is very little variation of the colors in the spiral, but it is there if you look closely.

I think that the torc turned out pretty well, and I am thinking about making another variation with other colors where I will create more of a zig zag pattern by turning the direction more often. It might also be a good idea to try the same thing using an even peyote stitch instead of odd to see how that affects the pattern. When I used odd peyote stitch, the changing of directions means that the spiral gets tighter in one direction but I think that that might not be the case if I use even peyote instead.

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.