Thursday, February 18, 2010

Copper Malachite Necklace

Remember this guy?  Imagine my delight when my dear SO came home with a smaller version!  I was ecstatic and immediately went into my studio to see what I could do with it.
(the large one has 1/2" SCM stamped on it - the smaller one has NIBCO - the company name - on it)

After a lot of trial and error, I settled on some wonderful malachite; the large beads are vintage from Africa (I blogged about them here), and the smaller rounds I got from a wonderful gem shop over in Belfast, ME, Bennett's Gems.

then, I thought a wonderful little copper celtic component I had would be good as a connector, and would work well with the green malachite;




I added a clasp on one side using one of the large malachite beads (it clasps in front);

then I wrapped some 3mm malachite rounds (using 22 gauge copper wire) and made some jump rings from some 18 gauge square copper wire to create a chain;

added the copper plumbing thingy (which I hammered and buffed and shined), a dangle and there you have it!

the copper strip can be personalized by stamping or even perhaps etching a design onto it - many possibilities!

1 comment:

Mike McLaren said...

Very clever, and very lovely.