beading: Mookaite Fiddlejoy Necklace

[jesse_the_k]

Given the imperative to avoid face touching, I’ve been cranking out jewelry that gives me something to fiddle with. This “fiddlejoy” necklace combines round and rice-shape mookaite beads — mostly burgundy color — with some sparkly red rondelles. Hanging from the center is a 40mm mookaite ring with a 12mm bead suspended inside.

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Very pretty- nice that the jasper is lighter.

What stringing material are you using? (I've got lots of beads and probably less material appropriate to build them into jewelry.)

I just realized I could babble about beading for hours

[jesse_the_k]

I'm a big fan of beading wire -- Softflex in particular, although I've also tried AccuFlex (house brand at Fire Mountain, probable the same stuff), and Beadalon.

I secure each end with two twisted (aka tornado) crimps that close with any pliers, and make sure to stuff the crimp full, even when that means threading a wire back through a third time.

In this necklace, and any other piece where I'm only using a single pass through 11° beads or larger, I use "medium," 0.019" in SoftFlex. South Pacific Trading Company has a great deal right now: US$32 for 100 feet. AND I just noticed they lowered their minimum purchase to $25 -- go wild. I suspect South Pacific was the first online beading store -- at beading.com -- their prices & service are A+. They were out of one strand I ordered, so they swapped in three similar ones. Their motto is "Do not fester. To fester is bad."

When I'm threading smaller beads, I use the "thin," 0.014" SoftFlex.

I'll stop now.

Re: I just realized I could babble about beading for hours

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I think I've got some beading wire, somewhere. Also hemp, waxed stuff and some other things too.

Will be working on getting things organized on days it's rainy.