Sunday, December 8, 2013

Saying Thank You

If you have been following my blog you will know that I moved to Jersey City less than a year ago.  I have no family here and at that time knew nobody within many hundreds of miles.  When I needed to be picked up at the doctor's office last week following a test I asked a new friend.  I did the usual, said thanks and wrote a thank you card.  I also made her a necklace.

The original plan was to create a necklace using black and white beads with wire-wrapped connectors.  I grabbed a focal from my stash- a nice piece of onyx, some agate, a vintage white crystal, some Czech fire polished crystals, one resin and shell bead, and got to work.  The original plan looked like this:
Original Plan
Now this is a very fine necklace with great components.  I used spacers to embellish the ends of the beads and silver filled wire.

However, I am a bead weaver, and being inspired I grabbed another piece of onyx, bezzeled it and then embellished the bezel with more seed beads and some 3mm fire polished crystals.
Embellished bezel on onyx
Here is another view:
From the top

I had to cut out the onyx that I had at the center of the original necklace, which left the strands:
Strands
Here is the finished necklace.  Now, if anyone can offer some tips on capturing the length of a necklace and capturing detail I would appreciate it.

Finished necklace
One more closeup.  I received Cindy Wimmer's The Missing Link book for my birthday so I have been playing around with wire.  Rather than add a clasp that I purchased, I made a clasp.  The clasp is not part of Cindy's book, but without the book I would have just gone with a purchased clasp.

Hand made clasp
It is good to have friends.  It is good to be able to create.

If I don't post again before the holiday, you have a safe and happy holiday.