I have taken way too long to get back to this necklace that was supposed to be a birthday present for my daughter, but it’s not the first time gifts have been late. My first idea had been that the old rings I wanted to highlight would stand out well against bronze, but instead, the bronze kind of buried the gold, making it all look drab. After a lot of thinking and looking around at other jewelry for inspiration, I went for a a mixed metal look that uses more gold, along with silver and onyx.
That doesn’t mean I am finished, but I have a good idea of how the finished piece will look. It required hunting down a lot of individual beads and more wire wrapping (which I haven’t done yet). The bead tray—I love those things—will give you a good idea of where it’s headed, but as with most beading adventures, initial ideas can change as you start putting it together. You have to see how it will hang, for example, and you have to see if your wire links look as you thought they would. So here is the first idea and the prototype for the next one: