Monika Wiklund

This jewelry is also a result of the preparations for going to Medeltidsveckan in Visby this summer. As you might already have guessed, it is inspired by the strings of beads that was commonly worn together with viking style dresses and this jewelry is made of bronze colored metal details, mookaite and jaspis beads, and faceted glass beads.

I never used it myself since the color does not match either of the dresses I made, but I think that it looks pretty nice and I hope that I will manage to find a use for it some time int he future.

Photography by Kristian.

The pattern from this necklace is also from the beading book that I bought this summer (Beading Beautiful Costume Jewelry – Patterns for Every Festive Occasion), although the original pattern used drops with vertical holes rather than with horizontal holes like these have so I had to adapt the pattern a bit to accommodate for this.

Another difference compared to the original pattern is that I used round and faceted semi-precious beads instead of faceted glass beads. I used round white howlite beads and round and faceted rose quartz beads in combination with pearl white seed beads. The small seed “bead caps” is the addition to the original pattern that I made to adapt to the horizontal holes in the drops.

I think that the idea is pretty nice even though this particular necklace turned out a bit crooked and uneven since the drops are not hanging straight down like they are supposed to, but I think that if I make another one it will turn out better.

Photography by Kristian.

This necklace was made as a part of the clothing that we prepared for going to “Medeltidsveckan” in Visby this summer. I already had these large red agate beads, and I thought that they would match my red over-dress if I could come up with a nice combination. Since black and red always go well together I dug through my stores and managed to come up with this combination of red and black agate beads together with some black pony beads, black clay beads, and black glass beads that I used to fill out the necklace to a suitable length.

The picture below is not very good since it is taken with a mobile phone, but it shows me in Visby wearing the necklace together with the clothing that I made for “Medeltidsveckan”.

Photography by Kristian.

I have seen many versions of necklaces with hematite heart pendants like this one, and here is a version of my own made with hematite lantern-shaped beads and green cloisonne beads.

The cloisonne beads I have had lying around for some time without using, but the hematite beads I found at Syfestivalen in Älvsjö this spring, and the heart pendant I bought from one of the online shops I frequent every now and then. The pattern  is simple, yet elegant and I really like the result.

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.

The moment I saw these twisted metal links and the spiral pendant I was in love. I found them this spring when I went to “Syfestivalen” with my sister and of course I had to buy some links and a pendant to try and make something of. Of course, I also found the rectangular stone beads at “Syfestivalen” but from another company. If I remember correctly, the stone beads are charoite and I love the structure and shifting purple and white color.

As usual, I had no real plans for which beads to use together when I bought them, but once I got home and started to plan out a necklace with the metal links and pendant I realized that the charoite stone beads fit perfectly with the links and with this thick metal chain that I already had in my stores. I am very happy with the resulting necklace, and I have even thought about buying more of the metal links and pendants to make copies or variations of the theme.

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.

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.

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.

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.