tiranaki:

Glass Pearl and Crystal Bead Suede Macrame Single Strand Wire Wrapped Necklace 

I spent several hours across a couple of evenings making this necklace. It’s a mother’s day gift for my mom back home in Puerto Rico, made to match a suede macrame glass pearl bracelet, and pair of matching earrings. I don’t generally do jewelry in sets, mainly because I think that people don’t “do that” anymore, that it’s old fashioned. My mom however loves sets and she was thrilled when I surprised her with the earrings in addition to the bracelet, so I’m thinking (and hoping) she’ll love this as well. This design might seem odd for a woman in her late 50s (it comes off as a little Neo-victorian/steampunkish to me with the “rawness” of the metal colored wire mixed with the pearls), and while my mom is certainly on the conservative/old fashioned side, she’s got a little bit of a fashionista in her so I’ll know she’ll appreciate a modern twist on the traditional pearl necklace.

The three bottom pictures are “process” shots, if you will. I generally start my having an idea of an design in my mind, sometimes it will be concrete and sometimes it will be vague, like in this case. I knew what pieces I needed to use to make it match the bracelet and earrings, but I wasn’t all together sure of how to tie everything in. I laid the pieces out in what’s traditionally a baking pan, but I’ve been using it as my component-organizing pan, and my polymer clay baking pan. It’s never been used for food, only jewelry. I realize most people have a bead organizer tray with different necklace sizes and compartments for the beads. And don’t get me wrong, I’d love one, but I like my pan too. #DIYFTW.

The second to last picture is a fancy artsy shot of the main bead components. It’s a glass pearl with pewter beadcaps and small black beads. Secured with double/triple wire wrapped loops. Gave the picture a vintage-like effect because I thought it fit in well with the whole “pearl” concept. The last picture are the pieces laid out on a microfiber buffing cloth so they don’t roll around on me. It actually took me about an hour to come up with a “design” because I kept re-arranging pieces around and second-guessing myself. Even when I started putting it together I kept having doubts and moving pieces around.

I don’t have a close up shot unfortunately, but I also made some custom wire-wrapped beads to go as spacers, though you can sort of see here that I ended up putting other beads alongside them as I kept thinking that the wire beads alone felt empty. I did like the look and concept and was thinking about maybe expanding on that with another design.

If you liked my work, feel free to pin to Pinterest or share around! I don’t mind, so long as my credit isn’t removed. Link back here (http://tiranaki.tumblr.com) or to my etsy shop (http://koana.etsy.com).