Lynda's "Vintage Ephemera" Bead All Grown Up

Well, I was pretty eager to get cracking on creating a necklace for the fabulous "vintage ephemera" bead Lynda Moseley of Diva Designs sent me. (Please see my previous post for more details on her stunning polymer clay beads and focals). I had the design in my head already, mostly, and it was just a matter of playing with it a little. I knew I wanted to use a bunch of the wonderful antique-silver-plated chain I just got from Lima Beads the other day, and red agate and labradorite, and probably some pearls. This is how that all eventually shook out:

I decided to add a couple of my nickel beadcaps to the focal, as the holes were fairly large and I wanted the bail to be really sturdy on it. I balled one end of a long piece of 20 gauge sterling silver wire in my torch, hammered it a bit, and strung a bunch of 3mm beads on it inside the focal, to tighten up the fit inside because I didn't want it wobbling. Then I had to stick down the beadcaps with some Hypocement, to keep them from moving around. Then I just started wrapping all my stones. The Dremel came in handy when it was time to polish!

I made it fairly long--the longer strand is 26"--because I felt the focal needed a dramatic sweep of stones and chain. You can see the length better here:

The chains featured here from Lima are the double cable chain (silver plated steel), flat oval chain (also silver plated steel), and a delicate ladder chain (silver plated brass). The have a great feel to them. The ladder chain is actually the same chain I make myself, just with a much rounder, hammered loop, and much finer. I'm going to make some of this in a larger gauge! I love the rounded, hammered portion.

Lynda, I hope you're pleased with how your "baby" has grown up. It made it all come together so easily--it really is a joy to design around a beautiful art bead. Thanks again, Lynda!