Monika Wiklund

Here is another one of my recent favorites, a red coral necklace that I made this summer.

As you might notice, the pattern is a variation of the RAW stitch, but I added some metal spacers between the red coral beads to increase the contrast. I think that the small coral heart pendant makes a very nice addition to the entire necklace, and I am also very happy with how the combination of the larger and smaller coral beads creates a pattern within the regular pattern.

Photography by Kristian.

I made this necklace to use with a pale green cocktail dress for an agent-themed party that we were invited to earlier this year. The plan was to achieve something that would fit into a James Bond movie, and I think that this necklace is a pretty good approximation considering what I had to work with and how much time I had to come up with something.

The necklace is made using the RAW technique and consists of different sized metal spacers and pale green transparent semi-precious beads with a few larger faceted rock crystal beads in the center. There is also a matching bracelet which I do not have any pictures of but I think that both the necklace and the bracelet fit perfectly together with the cocktail dress and we had a great time at the party.

Photography by Kristian.

As you might have noticed in some of my earlier works, I like to use contrasting colors in my necklaces and this is no exception. I also like to work with semi-precious stones and in this case I have used a combination of onyx, turquoise, and hematite beads that contrast very nicely with each other.

It is a very simple pattern with the different colored beads moving between the three strands between the large ornamented sliders, but I think that the result is very stylish and elegant if a bit large and with a slight medieval touch to it.

Photography by Kristian.

I found these hexagonal jaspis and hematite beads once when I went to “Symässan” in Stockholm, and I think that they fit very well together in this combination with small round beads. I particularly like the structure of the net-like pattern of the jaspis and how it contrasts with the shiny gray hematite beads and clasp (the clasp is not visible in this picture but it is also made of hematite).

Photography by Kristian.

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.

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.

Here is the result of a small experiments in which I wanted to make a necklace to go with this dark brown and black flower. It was my sister who found the flower for me when we were at “Syfestivalen” in Älvsjö a little while ago, and of course I had to buy it together with a similar flower that was mostly white in color.

When I sat down and tried to decide what to make of it, I came up with this idea and had to try it out. I used four strings and used one for the center with black obsidian beads while I let the other three weave in and out of the center beads in a kind of plait with slightly smaller black and brown and reddish brown and yellow stone beads. Each of the outer strings goes through every fourth center bead, without using the same center bead for two outer strings. The necklace was worked from the flower and out towards each end, and at the end I continued to plait the strings without any beads to create a thicker string that is used to tie the necklace around the neck.

So far, it seems to be working, and I think that it is a concept that works very well.

Photography by Kristian.

These copper spiral tubes are very striking and I think that they can be combined with most anything. As you might have seen among my earlier posts, I have made a couple of other variations of this theme using both copper tubes and silver-colored tubes and different types of stones, and this is my latest version in which I have combined spiral copper tubes with small copper beads and diagonal rutil quartz cube beads.

I think that it is interesting to try different combinations of colors, materials, and shapes of beads to see how it affects the end result, in some cases a seemingly small change can make a whole lot of difference. In this case, I like the variation with cube beads but I think that perhaps another material or color of the beads would have made for an even better result together with the copper tubes.

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.

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.