Two-strand pearl necklace

This two-strand pearl necklace was inspired by the pearl necklace that Kathy Bates wore in her role as the Secretary of Defense in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I wished I was able to see the necklace more clearly so I could reproduce it more accurately.

Anyway, I thought my version of the two-strand pearl necklace does not look too bad, at all! What do you think?






This necklace is wholly made of real fresh water pearls. The findings used are sterling silver.


I love pearls and they are very versatile especially now that they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. They go very well with natural stones, glass beads and swarovski crystals.

One of many necklaces

I took a break from my quilting yesterday and made this.

I don't know what the oval stone is called. I've had a strand of this semi-precious stone for a few years now and yesterday I was inspired to use it on a necklace. I also used fresh water pearls, swarovski pearls, swarovski crystals finished with sterling silver lobster claw clasp in the necklace.

Mid LifeCrisis - Solved

When I was married 25 years, I took a look at my wife one day and said, "Honey, 25 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old blonde.

"Now we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50-year-old woman. It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of things."

My wife is a very reasonable woman.

She told me to go out and find a hot 25-year-old blonde, and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV."

Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve your mid life crisis.

Some recent pieces

Pearls, crystals and oval shaped Pietersite.

Mother of pearl, and blue zircon crystals.

Green mother of pearl and olive crystals.

Abalone and faceted natural stone .. err, can't remember the name of this stone. :-)

An Afternoon's Diversion

I took a break from my computer and decided to make some ear-rings. I should have been working on my clients' quilts but making ear-rings for yourself is more fun! :-)

Today I decided to use non-tarnish artistic wire instead of my usual sterling silver. I got tired of looking at the tarnished state of my sterling silver ear-rings! The wire I used is a 22 gauge and it is quite soft. I had to be careful when I did the wire-wrapping. It bends out of shape really easily.



Swarovski crystals and natural pearls. The middle crystals are two toned. Beautiful combination! :-)

Another pair of swarovski crystal ear-rings with a triangle shaped glass bead in the middle for interest.


I made two pairs of these ear-rings. The long bead is made of abalone shell. The small round bead is sterling silver and the blue zircon bicone beads are swarovski crystals. The extra pair I gave to Kathy, my good friend, and the kids' reading tutor.

Pearl Drop Ear-rings for Kitman

The pair above is made of six top drilled white and light peach colored pearls. The bottom pearls are not quite round and accented with sterling caps and swarovski crystals. The other finidngs are made of sterling silver.

Here's a slightly different version of the other pair of ear-rings. This one is made entirely of white top drilled pearls and accented with two bicone swarovski crystals on each side.

Kitman, I hope you like them and hope that they are good enough for you to wear to your wedding reception! That would make me happy! :-)

Wedding Jewelry

Christina, maid of honor and big sister, at Monica's wedding. She's wearing the black organza ribbon with different shades of pink fire polished Czech glass beads necklace that I made. The ear-rings are not that visible because it was made with black artistic wire with pink fire polished Czech glass bead.


Here's Kathy talking to Oscar the new son-in-law wearing the pearl ear-rings that I made.

A Summer's Wedding

Pretty in Pink! The ribbon necklace and matching black with pink crystal ear-rings were made by yours truly. :-)

The newly weds, Oscar and Monica.

Doug and I were at an evening garden wedding ceremony and reception yesterday. It was a beautiful day and the delta breeze was blowing. Sunny and cool by California's standard.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. The bride looked radiant and beautiful, and groom looked dashing. They each read a letter to each other, and exchanged a self written wedding vows. The bridesmaids were gorgeous in their pink with black organza sashes dresses. The black ribbon necklace around their necks and their matching earrings looked lovely. :-)

When the sun went down, the night got cool. Too cool in fact. I felt sorry for the ladies who wore their strapless dresses, or their spaghetti strapped dresses. It was the first night that I'd actually spent that number of hours out this summer. I brought my silk shawl and that kept me from shivering that night. A little dancing warmed up the blood a little too!

The wedding party was at its liveliest when we had to leave. Doug had to take the baby sitters home and we didn't want to keep them up for too long. But all in all, it was a beautiful summer's wedding.

Kathy's Pearls

Kathy's outfit for her second daughter's wedding is champagne colored with pretty little pearl beads around the neck area. I made this white pearl and champagne colored pearl dangle ear-rings to go with her outfit. The findings are sterling silver.

This two-strand two-toned pearl bracelet completes the mother of the bride outfit. To go with the ear-rings and bracelet Kathy is wearing a white pearl necklace which she got from her eldest daughter.

Lampwork Fever

Lampwork beads make such beautiful additions to a necklace or a bracelet. I bought all these lampwork beads at ebay.

From Puteri's Hobbies

From Puteri's Hobbies

From Puteri's Hobbies

From Puteri's Hobbies

These venetian beads came from a broken necklace that my mother-in-law got from a thrift store. Re-string them with gold/clear czech galss beads, rose water opal swarovski crystals, rose opal swarovski crystals and you get a knock-out of a necklace!

Ribbon Crystal Necklace

This is the sample ribbon crystal necklace that I made for my friend's daughter who is getting married in August. This necklace is for the eight bridesmaids at the wedding. The final decision is for a single strand of ribbon and crystal necklace. The reason being the bridesmaid's dress ride high on the chest and they don't want the three strand necklace to overwhelm the dress.

The single strand necklaces are done and I also did the same thing but in light pink ribbon for the flower girl. I am still making the ear-rings to match the necklaces. I am using black artistic wire for the ear-ring findings.

I have also been asked to come up with the mother-of-the bride's accessories. I think I will go with pearls for that one.

Three Pairs

This pair was made to match the carnelian-lamp work necklace that I'd made earlier. I used sterling silver caps with the carnelian faceted beads, and also a hollow sterling silver bead at the top half of each ear-ring. The wire and hooks are also sterling silver.


Swarovski crystals paired with lamp work beads. The hooks, bead caps and daisy spacers are sterling silver but the other wire work is silver colored copper.


Tangerine colored copper wire and swarovski crystals make this funky ear-rings.

Two Necklaces

I saw some beautiful and reasonably priced lampwork beads on ebay and bought some. Here's a chest length necklace made with carnelian, pearls, lampwork beads and sterling silver findings.



Rectangle mother of pearl coupled with fresh water pearls with sterling silver caps and clasps.

Sponge Coral Turqoise Necklace

Coral beads, turquoise nuggets, and sterling silver caps, beads and clasps make this pretty necklace.

Ear-rings

Wire and Beaded Necklace

This is my first wire and beaded necklace. A good friend's first piece inspired me to do something similar. The 10 mm round stones are aventurine and the dichroic beads were something I picked up at Michaels Craft Store. The metal is copper and the green and copper go quite well together.

A pair of ear-rings to go with the wire and beaded necklace.

Agate Jewelry

Agate ear-rings with sterling silver spacers and golden shadow swarovski crystals.

Agate beads, copper swarovski crystals, sterling silver spacers, hill tribe silver beads and sterling silver toggle clasps.


Agate beads with carnelian chips, sterling silver beads and clasps.

Crystal and Pearl Ear-rings

Swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls, and sterling silver findings were used in this creation.

Necklace and Ear-rings

This three strand necklace is made of a mix of grey beads and tubes, peacock colored freshwater pearls, citrine tinted quartz and 6 mm round cantaloupe swarovzki crystals. What I find interesting is that the cantaloupe crystals only look green at night under artificial light.

This three strand necklace is more stunning than the picture portrays!


The findings of these ear-rings are made of copper and are hand-made. The crystal rondelles are peridot.

Twisted copper links and swarovski crystals make up this dangle ear-rings.

A Morning's Work

I am still learning about wire jewelry and these four pairs of ear-rings were made with silver and copper artistic wire. 20 gauge half hard sterling silver is a little too hard for me and it doesn't bend easily. Instead I used artistic wire for the fancier wire work. My next purchase will most definitely be a dead soft 20 gauge. Copper is soft and pliable and fun to work with. The twisted link with the red bead turned out better than I expected.

It is great that I can now make my own ear-ring hooks! I used to spend quite a bit on sterling silver hooks but with the wigjig I can make better shaped hooks than those I attempted free hand.