Carnelian and agate cross-weave choker

     Today I did a project for myself.  I've had a unique oval red-and-black-and-white banded agate pendant for about three years, but had been unable to come up with a suitable design for it.  It reminds me of a clownfish, which was part of the difficulty.  I'd bought carnelian rounds to go with it (I read somewhere that banded agate is usually carnelian and/or onyx, both members of the chalcedony family, as is agate).
     I decided today to try just doing a simple round necklace using the carnelian rounds in the cross-weave pattern, but figured it probably wouldn't lay right unless it had a pendant.  Then I remembered I had the banded agate pendant sitting in my bowl of collected polished stones and dug it out to use at last.  I love the way it turned out, although where the necklace comes together over the pendant doesn't quite lay flat.  I didn't have enough carnelian to make a longer necklace, and because of the pendant's size I didn't want it too low anyway.  As things are, the V where the cross-weave comes together sits at the hollow of my throat.  I used size 15 black-lined red seed beads between the rounds, and a single blackstone round as embellishment below the pendant.

Name:  Clownfish choker


Price:  $40 (reason: tons of carnelian, time, and effort; personal collection)


Length:  15 inches; pendant is 1.5 x 1 inch oval