Learn With Me- Making of Necklace-3

I did not post much on making of jewellery. I have made many and gifted to my friends and relatives. I have lots of friends and relatives with Birthdays in September and October -Virgos and Librans.  :) :) :).... Well they appreciated a lot and when told them I made it and asked for their critical comments. But they assured me my jewellery was very good and looking like as if made by a professional.

Any way I have a long way to go. I am only trying out simple things. But I have lots of ideas on complicated designs too. I am also making bangles, ear rings, bracelets, anklets etc. to go with them. I will be posting tutorials in my coming posts.

The problem is many a time I have to make them at a very short notice- like some one's birthday engagement or some occasion and in all my hurry I forget to photo graph them. Well I will be making many more.

Here it is


Required:


Red beads
Gold (Matte finished) beads
String or wire
Clasp
Pendant set


Before Starting...


The Red beads are I think Garnet- not of very costly variety. I am not so sure because I have bought some different types in red colour and I am not too familiar with the names yet. I have used 24 on one side-total of 48 numbers.


Gold beads which I have used in between the beads are available in various sizes and varieties; mostly round or somewhat oval. They are available in plain, matte finish, cutting designs etc. In this necklace I have used matte finish. They do look dull but then they are in now. I have used 25 on one side- a total of 50 beads.


The pendant is pomegranate shaped with seed beads and matching ear rings. I have posted about it in my last post. I chose this because the white of the beds stands out in contrast to the red beads. It also has matching red beads dangling at the bottom both for the pendant and the ear rings.


I have used 0.45 mm wire. You can use any string that will hold the weight. Strictly speaking using same coloured silk thread is most prevalent practise.


Method:

• Decide the length of the necklace you want and cut the string accordingly after allowing an extra five inches or so for attaching the clasp. I prefer to string the beads first without cutting the wire or string. This way we can cut off the required length after attaching the clasp without any wastage. 
• The length of my necklace is 27 inches in total. 28 inches is considered to be ideal.
• First string in a gold bead then red coloured bead followed by a gold bead and so on...till we reach half way through.
• Then string in the pendant. Actually the hook of the pendant was too big. So I had wind the wire (to the back side of the hook) to keep it place, or else it would slide along the beads.
• Now string in the rest of the beads and attach the clasp.

Here it is.

This red coloured beads are very popular here. It goes well with many a silk sari-white, yellow, green as contrast and matches maroon shade saris.  But these days contrast coloured beads and jewellery are much in preference than matching ones. Red colour signifies, auspiciousness, prosperity. So Indians prefer red coloured saris or jewellery. 

I have used a very simple design. But one can use more gold beads. Similarly, I have used both gold and red beads of the same size. Actually both are available in different sizes and shapes too. Red beads are of different shades too. Suitable pendants can also be used-made of gold (polished if not of real gold), pearls, kundan, meenakari, glass, fibre etc-either contrasting coloured ones or matching ones.  

Hope you like it.

Pendants-3

I have not been posting much on this section. Well I have been very busy and also ill. Now I am slowly recovering. Here are another set of Pendants and ear rings. These are in the shape of fruits: Pear, Pomegranate, Strawberry and Pineapple etc. They are available in two sizes- big and small. These are made of some non precious metal polished with gold. They are encrusted with either seed pearls or white stones.

This is the Pineapple. You can see the white stones, with red beads dangling from the bottom. You can also see the enamel paint on the crown-Meenakari work. This one is my sister's. I could not photograph the ear rings. She has a matching set.

This one is mine- a Pomegranate. But this one has seed pearls. You can see the Meenakari work and dangling beads.

These are the matching ear ring set. 

These are a bit costly but very nice to look at and unique. They will also keep for long. So not a bad investment. 

What I observed was that all these set were following the red (or pink or maroon), green and white which is in fashion these days.

I have used my set in one of my necklaces. I will be posting the tutorial soon.

Do write your comments and suggestions please.I will appreciate if can do so.

Pendants-2

Floral Sets

Here I am with another variety of Pendant sets. Remember my previous post? It was Meenakari Pendants. See it here.

http://summersofindia.blogspot.com/2010/09/pendants-1.html

Now I am going to show you some Pendants in the shape of flowers. These may be made of fibre, glass, carved out of stones like jade or other precious ones and also corals. Here are the ones which are in the shape of Roses and made of fibre. This set contains one pendant and two ear studs.

This is lovely orangey peach. Well I don't know how to describe it.

This is one shade of sea green or aqua green.

This is deep blue.


Well these are available in different colours-white green light and dark, cream etc. I picked only those which would suit my beads to be made into necklaces.These can be worn on a gold or silver chains, cord, ribbons or used with beads. Oh these are available in three sizes-small medium and big. Mine is medium sized.


So how are they?

Pendants-1

MEENAKARI SET

I have this habit of collecting various items of jewellery separately and piece them together to form a set. It is very costly to go in for a complete jewellery set and also most times we may not  like all the items in the set. Whenever I visit the shops or visit the various trade exhibitions just browse through the items on display. I carefully pick and choose various items like ear rings, necklaces, bangles, pendants, anklets etc and then set them together. Most of the time I am successful in picking very unique items. But then it takes a long time to match various pieces to from a set and many a time, I end up without finding all the pieces. It is also difficult to remember all those that I have so that I buy the other matching pieces. Any way the challenge and fun is in making up sets like that rather than buying sets with unwanted pieces.

Since I have been making my own jewellery, I have started carefully collecting, single pendants and pendant sets. Pendant sets consist of a pendant and ear rings, sometime finger rings too. So I will show you some of my collections. Mind you my collection is very affordable, unique and elegant. That's what I feel.  :) :) . Here is one variety:

Meenakari as you know is a very intricate and beautiful art . I love the intricate and very delicate designs. Here is my post on Meenakari:

http://summersofindia.blogspot.com/2010/06/meenakari-work.html

Ok now for my pendant sets. 

This is a very traditional colour scheme of green and red. Red is symbol of auspicious or good events and green prosperity, fertility etc. It never goes out of fashion. These days this is much in vogue. Even beads are of jade, ruby or garnet and pearls are worn in combination with green and red pendants, ear rings bangles, anklets and so on. So I picked up this. This can be worn on a gold chain or teamed with the beads I mentioned above. 

What I like in this was the very intricate, delicate but traditional design which never goes out of fashion. I love Lotus designs. They are symbol of purity, spirituality prosperity etc. This is a very rare and unique piece. Except for the lotus, the other part of design, thats the vines remind me of Moghul designs of Tajmahal. Well is a blend of Indo-Persian design.

This is another set of red and white. I liked the floral pattern. This is not as delicate as the other one and the finish is also not that good. It has two rings, so the beads or chain need to be hung from both the rings.

Here are the matching ear rings. I have not yet decided the beads to go with it. Pearls, Green jade or red garnet or a combination of all may look good. I will just have to experiment around a bit, before I find the combination to my liking. I will post the final product after I finish it.

So How do you like this? I feel these are great for long time keeping as they go well with cottons or silks and even on a simple gold chain would look great.