I've had a whole string of these Botswana agate tube beads for over a year, and have spent much of that time admiring the beautiful mauves, pinks, and browns as well as trying to figure out what exactly to do with them. They're larger than most beads I use (and heavier given their size). I wanted to do something unique to suit them. Each bead is different in color and pattern, which is one of the reasons I like them so much.
Since I've been playing around with wirework a bit more lately, I rummaged through my how-to books and techniques on the supply sites I frequent, and this is the result, inspired out of one of the books (think I got the book for Christmas one year).
I got ambitious, and finally worked with my wire jig (which I've also had over a year), and made my own findings. I made each of the wire links, wire-wrapped the bead links, and made the clasp from scratch. Had I not run out of that particular wire (the stuff I bought from another supplier isn't as nice and I didn't want to mix the two), I would have added more links and made a longer necklace. This was actually the size in the book--actually, the one in the book is a little shorter because they used 10mm beads between wire links instead of 15mm tubes.
Inspiration not only came from a book, but also one of my new sweaters. I wore the sweater at work today, and had noticed when I was getting ready this morning that the Botswana agate in the bracelet I made a while back looked really neat against its colors (used the sweater for the photography, too).
The nice thing about how it's made: I can add links later if someone is interested in a longer length.
Name: Botswana Song
Price: $35 (reason: extensive wirework, cost of time and materials)
Length: 17.75 inches
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