Designing necklaces - finishing off a multi strand necklace

We thought it would be interesting to have a look at different aspects with jewellery design. Using a set of lovely lampwork beads from Lilly at Hot Bead Box we had a few ideas and decided to make the most of the designer beads by incorporating them into two very different designs.

Both design though not difficult look stunning when worn, we have used glass seed beads, Swarovski crystal beads and gold filled components.

So have a look and see what you think and we hope this little article will help your creative juices to start to over flow.
 

With the design on the right we wanted to help bring out the contrasting colours in the lampwork beads. The black Swarovski pick up on the black in the beads while the topaz Swarovski and goldfilled chain complement the remaining tones in the lampwork beads.
The design uses figure 8 goldfilled chain cut into sections and Swarovski beads and Swarovski/lampwork bead combinations that were created on goldfilled (20 gauge) wire, finished with wrapped loops for added security. The beads were joined to the chain with 4 mm jump rings to help the piece to flow and prevent kinking. A lampwork dangle was created with the goldfilled wire and wound lower to create caps for the bead , the three little Swarovski dangles at the end add extra movement to the design and give an air of frivolity when worn. We finished with a hand made goldfilled hook clasp.
 

For the design on the left the focus was on the golden topaz and amber hues and you will notice that the black in the lampwork beads has receded somewhat in this piece. Now stringing so many size 11 seed beads is a task made much easier using a bead spinner for sure. There are small gold vermeil spacers either side of the lampwork beads to prevent the seed bead from flowing into the larger bead holes. We used .010” softtouch wire for stringing and the mighty twisted tornado crimps for securing the ends. Again this design was finished with a handmade goldfilled clasp, in this instance a rather fancy s hook.

To end the multi strand we first secured ALL the wires in one .024” twisted tornado crimp, then we took four of the strands and looped them through a second crimp before securing and cutting the tails. There were too many wires to all fit back through the one crimp and this way works wonderfully as all the mechanical intricacies are hidden under the cone. All that needs to be done is to take a piece of wire, loop it as in the beginning of a wrapped loop and trap the tiger tail loop inside and secure. Then pop the cone on and create a wrapped loop on the outside ready for a jump ring and your clasp. Make sure your cone is going to fit nicely, for ours we needed to work the inside wire loop a little but that was fine as it is hidden.

If you wish to link to this pages URL please do so, web masters and newsletter editors please contact us prior to using any information contained within this article.

Free beading tutorial by Yvonne Kristel all rights reserved.