Instructions
When making something for a special event, allow plenty of time to accommodate problems, acquisition of special findings required, design changes, etc. Don't do as I do -- which in this case was procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate!Difficulty:
Category: Jewelry
Type of item: Accessory
For: Women
Style: Romantic, Casual, Mod, Funky, Whimsical
Materials
30 and 35 mm Blue Crab Agate Faceted Barrels, 7 mm Blue Freshwater Potato Pearls, Aquamarine Faceted Rondelles, Blue Mother-of-Pearl Donut Connectors, 3 mm Silver-filled rounds, and a Bali Silver and Opalite Crab Pendant.
What was your inspiration?
I had a general idea in mind of the design of this necklace which was to be an entry in my local county fair. This year's fair theme, announced immediately after last year's fair, is the Blue Crab -- and, yes, folks, I live in the Land of Pleasant Living, Chesapeake Bay country, and home of the Maryland Blue Crab. I bought the materials for this project months ago, but somehow never felt inspired enough to start it until yesterday afternoon and fair entries close today at 8 p.m. (Remember what I said about procrastination.)
I had the very old devil of a time figuring out how to incorporate the mother-of-pearl donut connector and go from one strand to three strands. As any of you who have worked with freshwater pearls probably knows, it's just not possible to run 3 strands of beading wire through pearls -- at least not without tediously reaming a lot of pearls to make the drilled holes larger. Of course, I also had not thought to buy any 1-to-3 strand connectors and had none in my inventory, so I just decided to use 22-gauge silver craft wire to put a wrapped loop on either side of the outside of each of the donuts and a pearl and two silver rounds inside each of the donuts. I could not for the life of me get the craft wire to go through the pearl and silver rounds and then pass through the hole on the inside of the donut ring, and I had no 24-gauge silver wire in my inventory. After an hour of frustration, I found a short piece of 21-gauge Argentium Silver, Half-round,Half-hard wire, which should have been larger than the 22 gauge craft wire, but actually passed through everything quite easily. Donut connector portions completed, I then put the project aside and went out for the evening -- to a crab feast as it happens. I woke up frequently during the night, running alternate designs through my mind to start the project over, but when I woke up this morning, I decided to stick with the original design, and the rest of it actually went together fairly smoothly. However, I hereby resolve to start next year's fair entry much, much sooner!.
What are you most proud of?
That I actually started and finished the project in time to enter it in the fair, and I'm pretty proud that it actually turned out looking like what I had initially envisioned.
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
Well, if you haven't picked up on the point I was trying to make throughout these descriptions, it is this:
Allow yourself plenty of time when making a project for a special event.
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