A touch of India

I haven't made much jewellery lately so I keep showing some "old favourites". This is a necklace I was very pleased with after finishing. And very tired: it is made up of rather small hand-wrapped wire shapes, made only using a pair of round-nose pliers and cutters. Using a jig was out of question, not only since I don't get along very well with jigs, but also because I wanted smaller components than a jig can make.

My starting point was this lovely open filigree pendant with cloisonné details. I chose to pick up two colours from the enamel: amethyst and tuquoise. Fist, I made links using bugle beads in both these colours (silver-lined), golden charlottes and golden craft wire (non-tarnish brass). Note how I deliberately bent the loops too the sides so that they would not hang straight, but in a slight zig-zag pattern, when worn.

Then I made basic "3-loop connectors" using the same wire and adding a amethyst s/l seed bead in the middle. I made one without the seed, the centre connector/link I added the pendant to. I liked these two shapes together with 2 mm jump rings I made from wire (not fun, making all those tiny rings). The clasp is also handmade by me.

I'm so glad the necklace turned out well and I got some lovely comments on it -- eventhough it's a bit hard to see how delicate and pretty it is in my photo. I'd be horrible if I had wasted all that time and patience it took to make.

The cloisonné pendant is Chinese, but the finished necklace made me think of India, hence the name. I've also made another piece of jewellery using Chinese cloisonné, but ending up with an Indian name: the simple bracelet below from 2006 is called Indian Spice. (I was real pleased to find that my silverfoiled beads matched the cloisonné beads bought on a seperat occasion: both have metallic lustre that shines through and hold the piece together.)