Green Glory

A commissioned piece.

Materials

20mm green agate - probably Chinese

16mm yellow and green druks - Czech

5mm frosted yellow glass - probably Czech

12mm frosted olive green pressed glass, faceted - probably West German. 

5mm polished nickel spacers - Indian

Sterling silver "S" hook and ring clasp - Thailand

Strung on Gudebrod Hunter Green 6116 "E"

Tools

#10 wire beading needle (2)

Silver "french wire" fine (1/2 inch)

Tri-cord knotting tool

New razor blade


As the necklace was intended to be worn either doubled or tripled, I cut a length of thread 100 inches long.  Because there were double knots planned at frequent intervals, I needed at least triple the finished length plus 10% working room.  I started by stringing the first block of the pattern backwards, followed by a quarter inch of french wire, then the closed ring for one side of the clasp.  I fed the thread back through the pattern block, knotting at the appropriate points.  I threaded a second bead needle on the main part of the thread, doubled the thread and strung the remaining beads.

The beads are knotted between the agate and the spacers. It would have been better to knot between the yellow frosted glass and the spacers, but the holes in yellow glass were oversized and it seemed at the start of the project that putting the pressure on the spacers and keeping the knots buried within the agate's holes would be more asthetically pleasing.

This necklace was easy to finish, since all of the beads had large, even holes that could take multiple strands of thread.  The far end was finished by stringing the last pattern in order without knotting between them, threading a 1/4 inch piece of french wire, the second closed ring, and then rethreading back through the last pattern block, placing a hitch knot between the appropriate beads, matching the pattern on the rest of the necklace.  Since I was able to rethread and hitch knot between six beads, I didn't use any glue to secure the knots.  I trimmed the tail off using a sharp razor blade.   Going back to the starting end, I threaded one of the loose tails through a full pattern block, then trimmed both remaining tails with a razor blade.

Time to Complete:  1.5 hours
Project Difficulty:  3 out of 5
Materials Cost:  Approximately $40