Slice of Purple

Instructions

The slices are irregular in size and shape, but I really didn't do too much arranging before stringing, except to consider which I wanted "front and center." I did have to use the amethyst rounds to keep the irregular slices (with consequential irregular drilling) from riding up over the next bead in some cases.

Difficulty:

Category: Jewelry

Type of item: Accessory

For: Women

Style: Casual, Romantic, Cute, Whimsical

Materials

Amethyst slices and small rounds, Citrine nuggets, gold-filled spacers and findings.

What was your inspiration?

I found these amethyst slices at a Bead Show and they were so unusual that even though I already had quite a few amethyst beads in my inventory, I had to have them. Amethysts and citrines are both quartz crystals, the difference being that the citrine crystals became yellow in color when exposed to heat. With this natural relationship, I like to use them together sometimes, and I especially like this combination of slices and nuggets. To my eye, it's both primitive and pretty at the same time.

What are you most proud of?

The "natural" relationship of both the gemstones and their shapes.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Because these irregular shapes are consequentially also irregularly drilled, some care must be taken for them to lie flat on the necklace -- even to the point of discarding a stone that would have too much of an overlap over the next bead in line. I tried a drop of glue to keep one such stone flat on the beading wire, but that also had the effect of making the stone immobile which I didn't like, so I relegated it to the "leftover bead" box to be wired into some other project at another time.