Necklace Length Visual Guide

Bohemain Mother Of Pearl Button Necklace Tutorial

I've had these old mother of pearl buttons lying around on my workbench just 

waiting to be made into something special.  Before I turn some of them into a home 

decor project though, I picked the nicest ones out and decided to turn them into a

beautiful piece of Bohemian button jewelry. Check it out! 

I measured and cut a length of sterling silver chain

 I cut some 3 to 4" lengths of sterling silver wire

Threaded a wire through a button hole then bent into a U shape

Pressed the wire snugly against the button

I wrapped the shorter end of the wire around the longer end

 I then created many!

I found the center link of my chain and attached the first button with a wrapped loop

Then I attached the rest of the larger buttons, equally spaced on the chain

Then I added the smaller buttons

Then I gave each one an extra wrap of sterling wire, nice and thick

Deciding whether to add some Amethyst or Apatite gems... decisions, decisions! 

I wrapped a few blue Apatite briolettes and then decided to add some crystal clear quartz beads too.

I love how these look like raindrops! I attached the quartz crystals to the buttons.

Almost finished... next this will go into Liver of Sulfur mixture to oxidize the silver...

Liver of Sulfur oxidizes the silver and turns it black

How it looks after the Liver of Sulfur bath...next it will be polished up with silver polish to bring out some of the shiny silver to create a nice contrast...

All polished up and finished!

I love how this turned out!

What do you think?

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(The necklace in this tutorial is available for purchase here)

Free Spirit Bohemian Necklace

Free Spirit

(a Bohemian necklace by me) 

For this necklace I used rough Chrysocolla, blue Peruvian Opal, Larimar, a few vintage 

Czech glass beads, sterling silver wire, and a few lengths of sterling silver chain. 

Here is a brief tutorial walk-through of the process...

Freshwater pearls and sterling silver wire...

I wanted the ends of the wire (the wraps) to be flat so after I strung on the pearls I carefully...

...flattened the wire ends with a hammer. Carefully.

Lookin' good

Meanwhile... I couldn't wait to use these rough Chrysocolla beads. The colors are spectacular.

I cut a piece of copper to stamp on because I was out of silver sheet... Improvise! 

Flux.

Flood with silver solder. Lead free always. 

Nice and clean. Kinda looks like a stick of gum LOL

Using a hole punch. To punch a hole.
I also trimmed the corners to make them rounded.

Wouldn't you know, I got two letter M's and no H! LOL
Back to the store tomorrow to get my H. 

I first stamped this with 1/4" stamps but didn't like the way it turned out so I made

another one and used the smaller sized letter stamps instead...

 Makes me happy.

At the same time... 
beading, hammering, wire wrapping, and making some connections.
I work in no particular order or pattern (no math here, LOL) I just assemble
it together as I think it looks best. 

Wrap it around.

I cut two lengths of chain that will be on the clasp ends. This makes it more 

comfortable to wear... comfort is important! 

Almost finished....still too shiny...

Love those loopy wraps! Time to go into a Liver of Sulfur bath to get that antique finish...

Love the blackened silver...but still needs a polish to bring out some of the silver...

Much better! Love!

Finished! This is a longer necklace - Opera length, about 32 inches long.

I like the feel of this necklace...it's peaceful and powerful  :)

What do you think?

I'm Kind Of A Big Deal...

Art jewelry necklace with text and reproduction of a 

vintage image behind glass. 

You like?

On My Workbench: Wire Wrapped Peace Sign Necklace

  

A peek into my workshop...

Wire Wrapped Peace Sign Necklace 

When I put the photo below up on my facebook page

Friday night, I entitled it "The Friday Night Special!"

I was playing with some fine gauge sterling silver wire before you know it, the peace sign appeared! ...I had some beads in mind that I had been in the mood to work with - mainly the small rainbow moonstones on the right.  I decided to add just 2 or 3 of them to the pendant as accents. 

Problem was, once I had the moonstones attached they faded right into the peace sign design! This would not do... so I used a Liver of Sulfur mixture to patina the silver, transforming it into a dark gray. 

This is what it looked like after I removed it from the 
patina solution.

Next I took a polishing cloth with some old silver polish
 on it and just polished it up a bit, removing some of the gray
so that you could see spots of the shiny sterling silver.

Finally finished!

My favorite finish is to show great contrast between the dark black and the shiny silver. 
I love the way this turned out! 


What do you think?


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