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As we head towards winter, I feel an urge to get the beading projects wrapped up. Winter just feels like more of a knitting season. Pragmatically, there's a lighting issue to consider: I need more light to bead than to knit, and with it getting darker sooner, my beading time is shrinking. And winter is the season I wear sweaters that can set necklaces off nicely, so I may as well have the necklaces ready to go when the temperature drops. So while I waited for the rice cooker to cook some quinoa (yes, I'm experimenting with the kitchen technology again), I tackled the River Rock Necklace.
The bottom half of the necklace was familiar territory. While the beads were larger than what I've been dealing with, the whole bit about stringing beads onto beading wire and finishing off the ends with crimp beads and some sort of endpiece has been integral to every bit of beading I've done this summer. The biggest challenge here was trying to decide what order to string the beads in. I wish the bead store had listed the gemstones involved, although since each kit is a random assortment of beads, this would've been prohibitive. I'm guessing that the clear white one is quartz and the clear purplish ones are amethyst. After that, it's all a mystery.
Using leather in jewelry was completely new to me. For this necklace, you bring a strips of rawhide through the metal loops, tie them close to the loop with pieces of thin suede and then cover the ends with cord ends. That was something of a struggle, since the two leather ends are basically plumper than the cord end. You're supposed to twist the cord end onto the leather, sort of like twisting a cap onto a bottle. I'm pretty sure the loop end is fine, but the hook end might not be all that secure. Maybe that's why you tie the rawhide with the suede, so that if an end does slip free, the suede tie will keep the rawhide from pulling out through the ring.
The bottom half of the necklace was familiar territory. While the beads were larger than what I've been dealing with, the whole bit about stringing beads onto beading wire and finishing off the ends with crimp beads and some sort of endpiece has been integral to every bit of beading I've done this summer. The biggest challenge here was trying to decide what order to string the beads in. I wish the bead store had listed the gemstones involved, although since each kit is a random assortment of beads, this would've been prohibitive. I'm guessing that the clear white one is quartz and the clear purplish ones are amethyst. After that, it's all a mystery.
Using leather in jewelry was completely new to me. For this necklace, you bring a strips of rawhide through the metal loops, tie them close to the loop with pieces of thin suede and then cover the ends with cord ends. That was something of a struggle, since the two leather ends are basically plumper than the cord end. You're supposed to twist the cord end onto the leather, sort of like twisting a cap onto a bottle. I'm pretty sure the loop end is fine, but the hook end might not be all that secure. Maybe that's why you tie the rawhide with the suede, so that if an end does slip free, the suede tie will keep the rawhide from pulling out through the ring.
