Red bead necklace...my version

 I was looking through the Fire Mountain Gem catalog and I saw this stunning red necklace.  The catalog directed me to their "Gallery" and provided a list of supplies needed for this gorgeous necklace.  It did not however provide the directions for assembly. The necklace would have cost me several hundred dollars ( using the suggested crystals and gold findings).  I however, purchased similar acrylic beads and gold finish findings at Walmart for under $20.00..including earrings. Jewelry doesn't need to be expensive!!!


What do you think of my knock off necklace?

Wyoming bound

I also made a simple pretty necklace for my friend Sherry in Wyoming....A silver chain with a large beautiful peach/pink pearl and a few aqua colored beads made a nice color combination.

* "MOP" #2 necklace

My second attempt at finding a use for the many extra imitation...(very shiny and pearly and vintage all the same) "MOP" buttons I've acquired lately. I used wire only (no silk cording) and wired every button and pearl on one strand (twisting the beading wire and button together as I went).  When completed to the length I wanted, I then took a thin wired ribbon and wrapped in around the center wire. This covered the wires and gave support to the buttons/pearls. I attached a traditional silver lobster claw closure to finish.




























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I Love tools!!

I love tools!!
My husband introduced me to pipe cutters and benders.
I've been making all kinds of copper and aluminum beads now thanks to his help. Copper tubing can be expensive, but I found relatively inexpensive rolls of copper tubing used for refrigerator water lines at Home Depot.  I've mostly been making beads, but this was the first necklace I made using a curved piece of copper and wire and
strung with other beads on a thin
copper chain.

second copper tube necklace

First Copper  bead  Necklace

Black MOP shank buttons

What to do with a bag of beautiful silky black, MOP, carved shank, vintage buttons? String them like beads!

I had one problem: I had two kinds of carved buttons. One group was carved thinner than the majority of the other buttons and they did not bead well (they didn't overlap right). So I made a pendant of sorts of the flatter,thinner, buttons and then strung the other thicker buttons for the necklace strands.



 I attached a ready made silk cord (from Asian City store) which saved a lot of time and I now have a silky smooth strand of black pearls....I mean MOP buttons.!

MOP button necklace #3: Count beads!

Button update: 

I found some stiff beading/knotting cord at the Asian City store in West Jordan, Utah  (Love the store!) and made another attempt at making the MOP necklace...including more bead work. It turned out great, but took 3× the amount of cording than expected. All those knots take up a lot of string!! And the necklace turned out longer in length than expected. I had the whole thing tied up and finished...or so I thought. ...until I noticed I was a section of beads too many on one side. Grrrrr. I don't mind tying knots, but I really hate untying knots... teaching me an important lesson:

 Count beads Sheila! Count beads!

Purple birthday

I needed to make some different type of jewelry after making all those MOP button necklaces. So I pulled some beautiful purple beads together to make a birthday surprise for my friend JoAnn.

The necklace was really pretty,  but purple is a hard color to photograph. ..This picture really didn't show the lovely purple beads at their best.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Captain!

 

MOP buttons

What do you do with a whole bag of 1/2" mother of pearl shank buttons?

String/overlap them together!! They give the soft silky warm pearl feeling and weight  without the top dollar prices of regular pearls. 

 They are pearls after all.. Just in button form!!

I've sold quite a few of these necklaces using different sizes, colors, and forms of these shank buttons.

Extra Mother-of- pearl (MOP)) buttons

Button update:

     I have accumulated quite a few of vintage MOP/mother-of-pearl buttons. I love the cool silky feel of the buttons and wanted to make a necklace, but couldn't figure out a different way to use the buttons. I then saw a picture of a necklace made from MOP buttons on pinterest and gave it a try. I started on this project two days ago and began  thinking I'd bitten off more than I could handle...really frustrating.. But in the end it turned out nice and I found a way to repurpose all the MOP vintage buttons accumulating in my button coffers.

     I started by stringing the buttons on silk cord, but the 

cord wouldn't hold up the buttons. I tried wired ribbon..didn't 

work. Next I tried wire....this started me down the right path. I

 put on a button, twisted the button on the wire, moved down

 a bit twisted on another button. This gave me the 

scaffolding for the rest of the buttons. Then I strung and tied 

the buttons on silk string with slip knots and wound the

 silk/button string around the wired buttons. I filled in with

pearls and more buttons until I got to the end of the wired 

string. I then tied the two strings together with wired ribbon and

 wound the wire ribbon around 

the center strings and between the buttons. It gave the necklace 

even more support and covered up the wire and knots. I covered 

up the end of the lines (wire,ribbon,string) by making a

series of slip knots to finish the necklace. Whew...complicated!!! 

But silky smooth and I've had many compliments every time

 I wear it.

Vintage lace and copper beads

Trial and error..always trying something new. This was a fragile piece of lace..so I  again used a wired ribbon to give the lace support. ....supported it enough to allow me to bead the lace with copper beads (I made the copper beads from tubing). I wrapped the lace around the wire/pearls and threaded wire, ribbon, and lace through each copper bead.








It got too complicated at the end...tried to get too cleaver...
didn't work.....needed to simplify.

So I took it apart and tried again...  Much nicer this try!!!!!

Chaining lace?

How to use this lovely fragile lace? I tried several things, but ended up using this terrific large loop, fine wire chain. This chain supported the lace...did not  overpower the lace.  I "wove" the lace through the chain, added a few beads, a lace clasp and neck chain....made a really pretty necklace  that was surprisingly easy.

Do Over

Do over.  I just didn't like the original necklace design....so I simplified using two pretty silver buttons, a silver wire coil and some larger silver pearl beads to anchor the bottom...better!!!

Saving lace

I acquired several yards of antique lace carefully wrapped and preserved..it had a note attached about the lace. It was purchased at ZCMI (Utah store) in 1900  by the Manti town dressmaker.  It is an interesting black cotton lace with silver metallic threads. I tried beading a bit of lace but pretty  brittle.  So I backed the lace with black satin ribbon for support and pulled out my MOP ring beads.  I used a head pin and some beads to turn the rings into "buckles" and this allowed me to gently weave the ribbon/lace through the "buckles" for decoration.   I added a couple large hole crystal beads to decorate the bottom "tails" a bit .