Vintage-Inspired Multi-Strand Necklace

  

This necklace started out as an idea to use up leftover beads, and the design was inspired by a vintage necklace I saw a character wear in a Hallmark Channel mystery movie.

(Actress Sarah Strange in one of the Garage Sale Mystery movies from the
Hallmark Channel, wearing the inspiration necklace for the piece I created.)

My original plan had been to use up the many leftover silver and black beads I had from my New Years Eve necklace and earrings set, but of course as I laid out my design and things evolved I couldn't find just exactly the beads I wanted from my stash, so naturally I had to buy some new beads. So much for my plan to try and use up some of my overflowing bead collection!

I think the silver luster glass, antique brass and rhinestone spacers, and crystal bars really give this necklace a vintage feel, even if none of the beads are from a bygone era.

I created the crystal 'bars' by stinging together graduated sizes of icicle-shaped glass crystal beads and wire-wrapping them snugly together to hold their straight shape.

The silver luster glass beads add an elegant sparkle, and when paired with the antique brass and rhinestone spacers definitely have an old-world feel.

 

In the interest of not buying even more new supplies and trying to use up what I had on hand, I created a couple of simple wire connector elements for the sides. These look much too modern for the vintage vibe I wanted, so I tried to help them mesh with the design a little better by embellishing them with small silver luster glass rondelles.

The chain and toggle clasp are handmade as well, and I kept the decoration on the toggle simple to better tie in with the side connector elements. As usual I used German style wire for all of the findings, chain and wrapped components.

 

This necklace was difficult to photograph because of the contrast between the clear crystals, the shiny silver, and the opaque black beads. And I don't think any photograph can accurately capture the level of sparkle this necklace brings when the light hits it.

 

The design for this piece was meant to be simple and striking, rather than one of the crazy colorful and detailed mega-pieces I usually make, and it was nice to give my fingers a little break. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out--I think this necklace is simple enough for daytime work wear, and yet definitely fancy enough for an evening out. 

What do you think, do you get a vintage vibe from this necklace? How would you wear it? I'd love to know!

Possibly linking up with:

Fabulous Party at Lou Lou Girls
Show and Tell Link Party at Flamingo Toes
Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims
Link Party Palooza at Tatertots and Jello

Jean Schlumberger-Inspired Collar Neckace

I am often inspired by photos I come across of classic jewelry, namely ancient styles seen in Roman and Greek pieces. With this piece however, I was inspired by a photo I found (thank you Google) of a beautiful gold floral collar-like necklace by the great french jewelry artist Jean Schlumberger, who was known for his many designs for Tiffany's in the 50's and the following two decades.

Jean Schlumberger's Tulip necklace for Tiffany's. [Image found via Google.]

My necklace is quite obviously nowhere near as glorious as the inspiration necklace, but it was fun taking that inspiration and trying to turn it into something that fit within my design style. I confess: it didn't work. This necklace was a total failure. By that I mean this piece did not turn out anything like my original vision for it and I was really disappointed with the final outcome. That being said, failures are teachers too, and in trying to create this piece I learned things I wouldn't have if I hadn't attempted it. And while I'm happy to have learned a thing or two, this necklace will definitely go into the 'upcycle' pile to be taken apart and remade into something new. But before that happens I figured it was worth sharing here, even if it falls into the 'failure' category.

I began by creating some organic leaf forms out of heavy 16-gauge copper wire. I just used my pliers and fingers for these; no wire jig or pattern.

I then wire wrapped the leaves to a wire choker form, wrapping the entire choker wire for uniformity.

I knew I wanted to add beads to fill in the spaces between the leaves, but hadn't exactly figured out how to link them to the choker in a way in which they'd stay in place rather than sliding around between each leaf. So for the next step, which I didn't photograph as it ended up being a spontaneous solution, was to use jump rings to attach a length of chain all around the underside of the wire choker form from the first leaf to the last. You can see the chain in the photo below.

I had first planned to use only citrine and pyrite beads to keep a golden feel to the necklace, but soon realized I didn't have enough of them to fill in the necklace properly. I found some carnelian and dyed jade beads to the mix to keep a sunrise palette and strung them all onto ball headpins along with gold floral bead caps to give each bead a flowery feel.

I then attached all of the beads to the chain that ran along the underside of the choker, which had the result of the wire leaves laying on top of the beads, rather than the beads being the main focus.

I still wanted a bit more organic movement to imitate the way the inspiration necklace's tulips seems to fall down the collar and almost seem to be moving, so I added short lengths of gold chain along the necklace to hang down among the beads.

All in all I suppose this piece came together (physically) somewhat okay considering that I had little idea how to create what I wanted when I first started. If I attempt to remake this at some point I will invest in more citrine and pyrite beads and keep the color palette strictly golden, rather than reusing the carnelian and dyed jade (red) beads. I will also not use a pre-made wire choker form (I'm generally not a fan of chokers, and I don't like how close this piece sits to the throat), and I'm already exploring a way to make a flexible chain of wire leaves instead. So check back down the road if you're interested in seeing the 2.0 version. In the meantime, here are a few more photos of the 'failed' version:

 

What do you think, yay or nay? How would you make this necklace better/different? I'd love to know.


Possibly linking up with:

Fabulous Party at Lou Lou Girls
Show and Tell Link Party at Flamingo Toes
Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims
Link Party Palooza at Tatertots and Jello

New Year's Eve Necklace and Earring Set: December Pretty Palette Challenge

I've been majorly slacking on blogging this year. But I've still been creating jewelry; I just keep up better with Instagram than blogging--you can usually see my newest creations there long before they make the blog (I'm @everyday_bijoux1 if you want to follow along).

Anyway, when the December Pretty Palette Challenge theme was announced at the end of November, I immediately knew I wanted to participate. Champagne? Old Hollywood glamour? Um, heck yeah. Sparkles and metallics and fancy. Be still my jewelry-loving heart.

Right from the beginning I knew I wanted some sort of lustery metallic as my inspired-by-champagne bit, 'fancy' beads that sparkled as my inspired-by-'glamour' bit, and a black and white color scheme as the inspired-by-old-Hollywood bit (think old black and white movies). So, I rounded up all of my 'fancy' (read: faceted) black, white, and silver luster glass beads and played around with some ideas. I used all the beads pictured above in my necklace and earrings, all of which (except for the large faceted black onyx rounds on the left) are Halcraft beads I found at Michaels.

I also decided to use copper wire to contemporize my design a bit. Even though the silver beads are luster glass and not actual metal, pairing their silver luster with the copper wire feels a bit like mixing metals.

I created three wire focal elements, two matching connectors to be used on either side of the necklace, two earring frames, and a toggle clasp using 20-gauge wire for all of the frames and wrapping them each with 26-gauge wire and copper-colored glass seed beads. (Click here for a how-to on creating wire focal elements.)

Next up, I embellished all of my frames with pretty black onyx and glass beads that were prefect for sparkling and reflecting light off their faceted surfaces. (Click here for a how-to on embellishing wire frames with beads.)

With the wire focal elements finished all that was left was to add some beautiful, sparkling white and silver glass beads and some embellished chain links, and then put everything together. I love, love, love how this piece turned out. It always amazes me when something actually turns out the way I've envisioned it in my head.

Here are some close-up detail shots of the necklace and earrings:

I think this set would be really fun for a fancy New Year's Eve party (or any night on the town, really)--bubbly required, of course. [Or, since this necklace is sort of a party all by itself, maybe I'll just stay home and wear it with my pajamas and watch Holiday Inn, and then I can say I was at a party anyway without having to embarrass myself by falling asleep at 10:30pm on someone else's couch during their New Year's party.]

 

What do you think, would you wear this to a New Year's event? Do you like the bright copper wire paired with the silver luster glass? I'd love to know.

Sarah

Possibly linking up with:

December Pretty Palettes Reveal at Halcraft
Fabulous Party at Lou Lou Girls
Show and Tell Link Party at Flamingo Toes
Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims
Link Party Palooza at Tatertots and Jello