This past weekend, Mom and I went to one of my favorite bead stores back home to look for some pink stone to make her a necklace for a sweater she's making. After being overwhelmed with the choices, we started to narrow things down based on the style she wanted as well as the color--she wanted a longer necklace than what I usually make her, and she likes the simplicity of round beads. She liked the pink and almost-coral colors of rhodonite, but didn't want the intense black matrix some of the beads had, so we got two strands to give me enough to sort out the most intense patterns and have enough to still make a long necklace. Instead of wirework, she wanted me to use the same technique I did with her watermelon tourmaline and yellow jade necklaces--simple silver rounds in between the stones.
We looked all over town for a suitable clasp, and finally located one on FusionBeads she liked, so technically this necklace isn't done yet, but I thought people might like to see it in unfinished form. I used 6mm rhodonite rounds, hypo-allergenic silver 3mm and 4mm rounds, silver crimps and crimp covers that will loop onto the clasp ends (meaning: no neck hair pinching!). I also used heavy-duty nylon-coated braided stainless steel beading wire wit a 25lb breaking strain.
The necklace is currently 28 inches long; with the clasp it will be (I think) about 30 inches.
Note: the fabric I used is actually a new scarf I "made" during a trip to Champaign with a lady I work with. The bolt of fabric was mixed in with the "costume fabrics" and since it's near Halloween it was on sale, so I bought a yard to make a scarf/wrap. It's a mix of pink, mauve, and yellow.
Price: $35 (reason: tons of stone and silver to reach this length)
Length: will be approximately 30 inches including clasp
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