Monika Wiklund

Pink and purple usually go well together, and this necklace is made of rose quartz, amethyst, and garnet beads combined with a mix of other pink and purple beads that have been left over from earlier projects. The necklace is based on the RAW stitch, but in the final row I added one extra bead to each group of four to create the flower patten that you can see in this picture.

I like the flower pattern effect, but there are a bit to many extra beads in the final row, which causes the necklace to curl up a bit instead of lying flat around the neck. As usual when I use the RAW stitch with semi-precious stone beads, I choose to use illusion cord rather than thread since the thread tends to break more easily if the edges of the holes in the beads are a bit sharp.

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.

I have already mentioned this bracelet in an earlier post, but since I did not have a picture of the bracelet at that time I decided to post this now.

This bracelet is made using the same technique as the earlier post, but this bracelet is wider with three rows of beads of varying sizes instead of only one as in the first necklace. Using larger beads in the middle row gives the bracelet a slightly rounded contour, and I think that it adds a lot to the overall impression. Of course, it is possible to use the two bracelets together and I think that they also fit pretty well together with the stone necklace I posted about a few posts back.

Photography by Kristian.

These blue and gold dice beads have been lying around waiting to be used for some time now. I bought them because I thought they were kind of cute, but then I didn’t get around to actually using them until recently when I was trying to figure out what to do with some other left-over beads.

This is the result, a combination of round and dice-shaped blue and gold glass beads, small tube-shaped gold colored spacer beads, round dark blue glass beads and gold-sand beads, round blue cloisonne beads, and some rectangular lapiz lazuli beads. The beads I had were just enough to make this necklace and a matching bracelet, but I only have pictures of the necklace.

The round and dice-shaped beads are not quite as transparent when you look at them in normal light, but I like the way the flash lights them up in these pictures.

Photography by Kristian.

 I made this collar necklace as a variation of this stone necklace that I posted about a little while back. The earlier necklace was made almost entirely of round stone beads, and I figured it would be a good idea to try out the same technique with beads of different shapes as well.

For this necklace, I used hematite cube beads, matte round onyx beads, faceted hematite-colored glass beads, and some round black and silver desert sand beads. I think that the combination of round, faceted and cubic beads works perfectly together, and I especially like the contrast between the matte onyx beads and the shiny hematite. 

As with the previous necklace, I used the RAW stitch for this neckalce and the different sizes of the beads also helped create the rounded shape that fits perfectly around the neck.

Photography by Kristian.

I think that lava stone beads work very well in combination with different semi-precious stones and I have made several necklaces using this theme. The earlier necklaces have been in more discrete colors, but I really like this combination of bright red coral and matte black  lava stone together with the heart shaped cinnabar pendant.

For this necklace, I used three different sizes of coral beads and two sizes of lava stone beads together with some cute metal spacers and a simple round toggle clasp. I really like the colors and the beautiful flower pattern of the pendant, but for some reason I haven’t used this necklace very much so far.

Photography by Kristian.

A very nice and slightly different stone necklace made from three different kinds of stone using the RAW technique. I started working on this necklace after I made a bracelet using similar beads, and I thought that it might make a cool pattern with the black/gray snowflake obsidian and brown/black mahogany obsidian beads in lines radiating out from the middle while the shiny hematite beads are mostly used as spacers between the rows.

What creates the rounded shape of the necklace is the increasingly larger beads. The inner rows have 4 mm beads, the middle rows are made from 6 mm beads, and the outer rows are made from 8 mm beads and large snowflake obsidian chips.

Unfortunately, I made the necklace a bit too large to fit around my neck without tying a knot before locking the ends with the toggle clasp, but since my hair is long enough to cover the clasp I guess it doesn’t really matter. It took quite some time to make the necklace so I do not wish to rebuild it unless I have to. I also made a simple RAW bracelet from the leftover 4 and 6 mm beads, but I do not have any picture of it.

Here is also a picture of me when I am wearing the necklace with a brown and gray summer dress, which I think makes a pretty nice combination.

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.

This is a rather nice and simple bracelet I made by sewing bugle beads together using the RAW stitch and then sewing round semi-precious stones across the diagonals. I used three different kinds of stone  for the diagonal beads, snowflake obsidian, mahogany obsidian, and brecciated jasper and when I added them to the diagonals, the squares of the RAW stitch was squeezed together across the diagonals to create a cute zig-zag pattern along the edges of the bracelet. The beads are sewn together with illusion cord since the edges of the bugle beads are a bit sharp and are likely to cut through a thread pretty quickly.

This picture shows the inside of the bracelet where it is easier to see how the bugle bead squares have been pressed together by the adding of the stone beads. I am very happy with the result  of this bracelet, and I have already made another version with three rows of stone beads where the middle beads are larger than the outer beads but I have no picture of it yet.

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.