Step by Step

I'm always so wrapped up in creating a necklace, that I never think to document my process. With this piece, I took pictures of the necklace at 3 different stages, to show how the necklace transforms. This is a basic example, in the future I will document a more complicated piece.

1.) I found these beautiful glass beads. They were similar in style, with a silver lining and a clear coat finish, but each had unique shapes and colors. I thought it would be cool to piece them together and see how they fit.

2.) I bought these birds from Micheal's, and they are my favorite brand (Blue Moon Beads). I never thought to put them in a sequence of "flight", until I started placing things together. I added a second strand on the left hand side to help add weight and volume.

3.) At the end, I added a simple silver toggle clasp. I felt that the left side was still too light in size compared to the right, so I added a piece of chain and wrapped it around the beads. In the end my most favorite part of this necklace is the color. I would sell this necklace for $35-$40.

More simplistic: Octopus

I fell in love with this blue moon bead's pendant as soon as I laid my eyes on it. I love the vintage feel the colors give to it. I wanted to create a necklace that brought out each of those colors, but didn't over power it, and take focus away from the pendant. I chose to do a series of mixed glass pieces. I followed a pattern in color, but all the beads are different. To keep a nautical theme, I wrapped chain around the entire necklace. This also gave it a little more weight, which I felt important because of the size of the pendant. The toggle clasp is placed on the lower left hand side, instead of being placed at the top of the necklace (which is much more common in traditional necklaces). This is one of my all time favorite pieces. I would sell this for about $28-$35.

My favorite place to buy pendants from is a company called Blue Moon Beads. Most stores like Hobby Lobby or Michael's carry them, so they are reasonable in price, but still have great look and quality. I've held on to this pendant for a while, unsure what I wanted to do with it. I love the look and feel of it, but it is a heavy piece, and would look extremely bulky if I didn't put it with the best complementary beads. I prefer my version, but I posted a link of what the manufacturer's idea for the piece should be. Which do you prefer? This necklace took about 5-6 hours to complete. Because of the time and the price of materials, I would price this piece at $70-$75.

-My version

A before and after piece.

"Change means that what was before wasn't perfect..." --Esther Dyson

This necklace started out as a single stranded piece. The flower pendant was originally placed in the middle. I loved the color and the feel of the necklace, I just felt that it didn't have enough weight to it. I added two more strands and placed the flower pendant on the side. The best part of making artistic jewelry is that things don't always have to be symmetrical. I kept the original findings, but placed the leaf like clasp at the back instead of on the side. This piece took about 4-5 hours to make. Due to the amount of work and price of the materials, I would sell this for $60-$70.

-Before-

-After-