Hey, Do You Think You Could Make...

My good friend Sandy has become an awesome BFBG customer.  She texted me a kinda fuzzy photo of some jewelry and said, "I think the one on the right would be a good addition to the BFBG line."  It had amber and champagne large crystal beads, what looked like glass pearls, and a stone-ish flat disk focal with cool striations.  (You know I totally just had to google that to make sure it was spelled right :-))  It definitely looked like something I could make.  And wouldn't you know, Artbeads.com had a sale on Swarovski between Christmas and New Years - 25% off.  Click, click, click and they were on their way to my house.

Now first a couple things.  I am AWFUL at judging sizes when I buy something on line.  But the beads in the inspiration picture looked big so I ordered the biggest ones they had.  I really didn't have any kind of scale to judge by in the picture, but I figured I couldn't go that far off the rails.  Once I got the wire out to make links I have to say I was a bit intimidated.  I don't usually buy a lot of Swarovski for the same reason I don't do any wire work in sterling silver.  I would hate to mess up!  But they seemed to hold up way better than expected.  In fact, you really could feel they were quality products.  Lastly, I ordered a string of large Crab Fire Agate beads so I could use one as the focal - and the string I got had way more white than I expected.  This is not a complaint - it just didn't work with this project since I had gone more red with the other beads I had picked out.  As it turns out, I had an elongated oval focal I bought on a short trip to Montgomery, Alabama that worked PERFECTLY (price tag on it said $6 - no wonder I snapped it up).

So enough stalling, here is how it came out.

Because I used jump rings between the lengths and the crystals were large, it's a pretty long necklace.  There is definitely no need for a clasp.  Did you know there were names for lengths of necklaces?  This one is opera length, and you can see the other definitions on a helpful page here.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!