Wordless Wednesday: Lovely pendants - which is your favourite?

1. Moss agate
2. Moukaite heart
3. Riban jasper leaf
4. Purple crazy lace agate
5. Faceted smokey quartz

1. Jasper teardrop
2. Unakite
3. Chohua jasper
4. African blood stone heart
5. Pink leopard jasper

Double knotting a necklace

If you want to knot a beaded necklace with semi precious stones, but the holes in the stones are quite large, what's the solution?

I'd got these lovely S-shaped 'slab' beads in dyed turquoise agate (that's an agate dyed a turquoise colour, not huge turquoise beads, BTW!) and was keen to use them.  My favourite thing to make is always a knotted necklace. However, a single knot in the beading thread would just disappear into the rather large bead hole. Thicker beading cord might have been an option, but I wanted to use 6mm howlite beads with a smaller drill hole in between the large slabs - any larger round beads and the slabs might spin or pivot when worn and that's always annoying - so I was a bit stuck.


 I have some pearls which are double knotted, but the knots lie side by side, adding to the length of the necklace.  It looks great with those organic freeform pearls, but wouldn't have been right for this more structured design.

My solution was double knotting.  First, doing a normal single knot close to the bead.  I always use knotting tweezers, as this gets the knot exactly where I want it...



Next, I knotted over the knot I'd just made.  It took a little practice to get the result neat.  The best way seems to be to position the tweezers so that they are at the cross over point in the first knot, and very gently roll the second knot into place, not pulling as tightly as you would for a normal single knot.  Then the second knot was more inclined to sit neatly with a little overlap ...





 I liked the results.  There is still some movement between the bead hole and the double knot around the dyed turquoise agate stones, which adds to the fluidity of the necklace.  A big necklace that it too rigid can be uncomfortable to wear, in my humble opinion.  Also, there is very little pivoting of the larger stone, as the little howlite bead is very securely in place.  And because the knots look like little spacer beads, there's another shade of blue in the design. 

What do you think?

The finished design is in my Etsy shop.

Like Marmite?

Sometimes you make something and are convinced it's right!  These amazonite and swirl earrings were like that - an idea you wake up with in the morning and have to try out.

But the couple of people who've seen them had mixed reactions.  Which leads me to the conclusion that these are Marmite earrings - you either love them or you loathe them!

My view is, what's not to like?  The amazonite beads are a beautiful sea-greeny blue with natural inclusions.  The charms look handmade (although I cheated and bought them!), each one unique and delightfully imperfect in a wabi-sabi kind of way. And even though they are long, I would wear in the day with jeans and a T-shirt as well as to a more dressed up occasion with my hair up. (Not that I have a glamorous lifestyle, you understand, walking the dog is usually the most sociable I get in an average week!) 

Also, they sort of remind me of the past - perhaps Etruscan hammered jewelry and the long elegant ear ware you see in paintings and mosaics.  But perhaps that's just me being an old romantic.

So, what do you think?  Please let me know because around the corner is a necklace based on the same principle - although it's square beads and charms so not a match.

Oh, and don't forget to give your views on Marmite too.  Me, I can't get enough!