Stained Glass Necklace

When I saw this contest, I was inspired to make a necklace based on some of the stained glass windows I had seen. I have made chain webs before, but I usually make the web first and then add beads, so making a web to fit the beads was a learning curve for me. Now that I have tried it I can say that I do prefer laying out the chain first, because it lays better, but now I know! If you make this project I hope you will post it and show me how you did it. Over all this was a fun necklace for me and I like the final project, so I can't be that far off!

For this necklace I ended up using:

• Silver chain
• headpins
• jewelry pliers
• and whatever glass beads I could find

I got out a lot more beads than I needed, but since I didn't have a clear picture in mind of what I wanted, I got out every thing I could find. I have jump rings and silver wire in the photo, but I ended up just using the headpins.

I chose a large glass sparkly piece I have had for a while. Personally I went for a larger centerpiece for this necklace, because a smaller bead would get lost in the chain. I like the multi-colored finish on this bead because it allows you to go for a wider range of accents.

I tried multiple things for the complimenting color scheme, but I stuck with the bright blue because it brought out the color in the centerpiece. The square beads I tried first matched the centerpiece more, but the overall effect was a more toned down piece.

After choosing the main color scheme, I filled in the design with some purple and more blue.

Creating the web was a multiple step process, I started with the central line and built out along the "wings" to connect them to the main body. If I had to pick one thing to do again, it would be this step. I would have started with a longer central line, shorter "wings" and a shorter body piece to end up with a more diagonal frame. I tinkered with the lengths until I was roughly happy with it, but I would still probably have done it differently if I had started over.

There are a few things I would like to change about this necklace, but overall I am pretty happy with the results. I hope you enjoyed this project!

Nene Granato