Behind the scenes

Remember this group of colorful beads?    They’ve been transformed in to a finished piece of jewelry and I’m going to take you behind the scenes to show you their journey. 🙂

Each of  the beads were made in to “bead units” with sterling silver wire.  Some were embellished with bead caps or spacers, some with fancy wire wraps and twists, and others were left simply alone.  I also added a nice bunch of silver beads and wirework links to the mix.  This step took quite a bit of time, figuring out what to do with each one and then individually wire-wrapping them.

After each bead unit was ready to go, the real fun began!  The best part was laying out each piece to see which bead would look just right next to which bead.  I reworked the design several different ways; I didn’t want too much blue here, or too much red there.  Some of my favorite links are the turquoise howlite, red coral and honey jade.  I then attached each unit link by link again with sterling wire.

Now this is truly a behind-the-scenes shot.   This is what a piece of jewelry looks like once it’s been dipped in a solution of liver of sulphur.  I took the piece out once it reached a dark, steely gray (which is only after a minute or two, depending on how hot the water was).  This is one look that’s popular now, where the jewelry designer leaves the sterling silver just like this, no polishing at all.   I went on and polished the necklace with fine steel wool, then placed it with soap in my tumbler.  I let it tumble so long that  the wire is now shiny, yet retains the dark contrasts in the coils. 

This is the 3rd time I’ve made this style design, a hodge podge of sterling and gemstone beads.  I kept my first one and wear it all of the time (like today).   This necklace is aptly named “Scenic Route”, for all of the beautiful and one-of-a-kind stops along the way in the road of life.