Necklace Design Evolution...

...from a serendipitous combination of beads, through the design and finding a buyer, and then altering it a couple of times to fit.

Back in July, while gathering up beads for the Gem Expo, these beads - hand-carved matte Afghanistan jade, dyed serpentine lotus flowers and watermelon tourmaline slices -- magically came together almost by themselves.

I finally got around to making the necklace in late September. Part of my internal debate was whether to go with gold or silver/pewter spacers and clasp, but I dunno, the greens are all on the cool side and I use very little gold and/or brass in my jewellery anyway.

I sold the necklace within weeks. However, it needed radical shortening because the new owner is so tiny -- quite apart from the overall length of the necklace, she was drowning in all the large beads. I lopped off two of the watermelon tourmaline slices and used them in the earrings which, silly bobo me, I forgot to photograph.

I also noticed when Gizella tried on what ended up being a too-short necklace that those narrow spacer beads weren't working between the tourmaline slices. There was such a sharp curve at the bottom of the necklace that the coin slices weren't able to lie flat. I needed to use round spacer beads for the wire to transition more curvily between each of the tourmaline slices.

Something else to consider with this particular design was Gizella's delicate bone structure. Because her collarbones are quite prominent I had to figure out where the longer beads would lie, both structurally and for comfort.

Here is the finished necklace, the second restringing with round spacers. I recommended she wear it a couple of times and different necklines to see if the necklace is now too long.

Speaking of The Gem Expo -- it's ONLY ELEVEN DAYS AWAY! See you there!

Something really cool I just heard about: Chris McGyver, owner of Honeytree Apiaries in Burgessville (aka B-ville), Ontario, just won Grand Champion Honey plus other awards for his honey and beeswax at this year's Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. Chris sells his honey and beeswax candles every Saturday at the Woodstock Farmer's Market and Sundays at the Stratford Slow Food Market.

Thanks for looking!

Jade, Serpentine & Mouthwatering Watermelon Tourmaline Necklace... & I've Moved Showcases...

Yes, I'm starving -- and typing "mouthwatering watermelon tourmaline" hasn't helped -- I just spent FOUR hours at the AntMall aka One of a Kind Antique Mall tidying up the booth, as well as moving from the old showcase at the main floor entry to a great spot around the corner and a few steps down the aisle.

First things first:

I had originally discovered this bead combination as I was getting ready for the July Gem Expo, but only yesterday got around to stringing them together. Wow, yes, the photo really does show up the fact that one lotus flower is quite noticeably larger than the other! Honestly, in real life, one looks a bit larger, but not to this degree. Take-home being, if you can't decide how something looks, take a photo. If you still can't figure out what's bugging you, flop the photo. Works every time.

Faceted matte Afghanistan jade, (probably dyed) green serpentine lotus flowers, watermelon tourmaline slices, with pewter bead caps and spacers and silver-plated zinc(?) flower clasp. This is about 19-1/2" to 20". I'm going to restring it, though. If anyone is interested, the blog price just for you is $95 plus shipping. Please email me to confirm that it's still available and what the shipping cost will be. I take PayPal and Square, and if you're in Canada I can accept an Interac email bank transfer (or whatever they call it now).

Okay, that's the purty stuff. On to the work part of my day. The AntMall has added another cash register so it's getting really crowded up at the front of the store with people lined up to pay for bulky goods and friends are standing around waiting. The dim lighting wasn't helping me, either. Last week, I was asked if I minded moving around the corner and down the aisle a bit. If nothing else, the new showcase is very well-lit. Bonus is it's across the aisle within laughing distance of my pal Brenda who sells high end semi-precious, silver and gold jewellery for incredibly decent prices in Booth 861. You really need to check her out. In particular she has lots and lots and lots of sterling rings for both men and women -- men's watches, too.

Buh-bye little showcase. From here...

...around the corner...

...to here...

Another angle, from Brenda's booth:

Took a good three hours to empty the old showcase and get this one loaded up. Tried putting Nancy's blue breakfast set on the glass "island" tray. Nah... don't think so...

Works for me for now:

I will be loading up the showcase with lots of new goodies in the next few weeks, PLUS -- sneak advance notice:

Nancy (Vendor 847) and I (Vendor 800) 

are having a 

15% OFF SALE 

for the entire month of October. 

That's everything in this showcase, as well as any items with our vendor numbers in the booth -- that's the booth with the blue walls directly across from the ladies washroom on the main floor just down from the cash desk.  

Thanks for looking!