The Ourika Necklace

It`s still mighty hot here in Marrakech and no sign of it relenting.  Zaki and I are just back from lunch and while home is only a 10 minute walk from the little cafe where we ate, by the time we got back I thought I could see a mirage.

So with it still being too hot to sew and after yesterday`s quilting calamity, I dug out my stones this morning.

Aventurine rondelles, aventurine round beads, rainbow flourite chips and acquamarine chips.

The purples and pale greens remind me of the glacial waters you see up in the Ourika Valley in the foothills of the Atlas mountains...a place to where the Marrakechis escape the summer heat.

These are much more my colours  - I love green and the combination of purple and green is so pretty.

It measures 18 inches (46 cm) or the length of a brachiosaurus` neck...tomorrow I have a giveaway to celebrate my 100th post...do hop over.

The Fire Necklace

It`s just too hot today.  Too hot to walk and take photos. Too hot to quilt.  Too hot to blog.  Just too hot.

The only thing to do is sit in the cool, in the quiet and make a necklace.  I used carnelian briolettes, carnelian round beads, Swarovsky crystals and garnet round beads. I tried to make this necklace before but the briolettes wouldn`t sit nicely and so I decided to add the small crystals...

I don`t have a bead board but always start a necklace in the centre and work on both sides simultaneously.

Like in other crafts, odd numbers are always a good thing and this necklace has 11 briolettes...I then added the garnet beads.  When you receive strings of beads you have ordered online they are not always a consistent quality and so it`s important to use the best quality ones and more expensive beads where they will be seen - from the front of the neck and shoulders downwards...

 After counting the beads to check there was the same number on each side, all that was needed was a clasp.

As I am fair haired, I`m not so sure these firey colours are for my colouring but I think it would look great on a brunette or a red head.  Now there`s only one thing to do.  Siest!

Linking up again with Our Creative Spaces.  Hop over there to see lots of creative people doing their thing.

Another Pearl Necklace

Today I thought I would share with you a necklace I made shortly before I left for our recent weekend in the Lakes. I up-cycled a cultured freshwater pearl necklace I bought a year or so ago in Covent Garden, London.  They are monster white ring potato pearls and were originally strung simply with a lobster claw clasp.  They weren`t expensive but I thought I could do something better with them so I used the same technique as I used here when I made the necklace for my friend Lisa.  It uses sterling silver wire, which is soft and flexible and strong which you wire wrap around the pearls to create a link.

Silver Bali daisy beads and round beads are used in the link also. It`s a little tricky to begin with and I wouldn`t recommend doing it for the first time using a precious metal (as I did) as mistakes are made but it doesn`t take long to master and the effect is lovely. I really want to learn how to string pearls knotted on silk and so I think I`m going to have a go at that soon as I love pearls very very much.

On the home front, I`m cracking on with my hand quilting of Z`s quilt and also working on Deborah`s quilt...photos soon! After a difficult last few days, things are peaceful now.  I like peaceful.  Peaceful is good.