March 2008

Midnight Serenade

Printable Recipe

1 Large Blue Crazy Agate bead approx. 3”x1.5”

1 20mm round Blue Crazy Agate bead

4 10mm round Blue Crazy Agate beads

4 8mm Swarovski bicones, Montana

3 6mm Swarovski bicones, Black Diamond

2 4mm Swarovski rounds, Black Diamond

2 4mm Swarovski rounds, Montana

3 10mm Swarovski round, Black Diamond

3 4mm Sterling cube, diagonally drilled

3 small Bali daisy spacers, approx. 3mm

1 8mm Bali dotted round

1 20mm Bali bead cap

2 feet silver wire 22ga

2 3or 4mm silver round beads

1foot SoftFlex Extreme beading wire, .014

18" SoftFlex Extreme beading wire, .019

35 1x2mm silver crimp beads

18" silver chain, thin links, approx 10mm links

2 silver clamshells

2 jump rings, 4-6mm

Clasp of your choice, we used a silver oval shaped click

Start with the pendant. Using the 22ga silver wire and the large Blue Crazy Agate bead.

1. Make a normal wire wrap loop at one end of the wire. Cut the excess off.

2. Slide on a silver round bead, the large Blue Crazy Agate bead, and the other silver round.

3. Make another wire wrap, but leave a smidgen of room between the wire wrap and the silver round; don't cut the wire off.

4. Using your fingers, pull the wire up and over the silver ball and wrap a few times to cover the large Blue Crazy Agate bead's hole.

5. Now continue to wrap the wire around the bead, free-form like. We curved the wire slightly with our fingers so that it curved about half way up the bead. Bring the wire around the back side of the bead; and curve the wire up and towards the top silver bead and the first wire wrap.

6. Wrap the wire between the large Blue Crazy Agate bead and the silver bead, about 1 1/2 times, so the wire is coming out from the back.

7. Bring the wire straight down the back to the bottom wire wrap; and wrap the wire around between the silver ball and the large Blue Crazy Agate, just to bring the wire around to the front.

8. Follow the first free-form wrap around using the rest of the wire. When you get to the top wrap again, wrap the wire a few times between the silver bead and the large Blue Crazy Agate bead to cover the top hole. Cut off the excess wire, and if you can, tuck the end of your wire up and under the wraps.

Now for the dangles.

9. Cut 5 pieces using the SoftFlex Extreme .014. Vary the lengths from 2 inches to 5 inches.

10. Slide a piece of SoftFlex through the bottom loop of the wrapped Blue Crazy Agate. With the ends at different lengths, slide a smaller bead on, making sure you get both ends of the wire through it and a crimp bead. Crimp crimp bead.

11. At the end of each SoftFlex tail, slide a bead on, followed by a crimp. Crimp the crimp bead at the very ends of the SoftFlex. Continue doing this until all the wire ends has a bead on it. The order and SoftFlex lengths are up to you. As a tip, the large 20mm bead and Bali cap do look the nicest on the longest piece of SoftFlex.

The rest of the necklace

12. Use the 18" of .019 SoftFlex. Slide the top loop of the pendant onto the beading wire and place it in the middle of the beading wire. Find the link that is in the middle of the chain; and slide both ends of the SoftFlex through this middle link.

13. On one of the sides of the SoftFlex, slide a crimp bead on and crimp it about 1/2" from the center. Do this on the other side; this will keep the SoftFlex centered. Slide a 10mm Blue Crazy Agate bead onto each side, followed by another crimp bead. Crimp the crimp beads.

14. Take the SoftFlex up through a chain link, about 4 links up from the middle link.

15. Continue spacing out beads with crimps on either side, and weave SoftFlex about every 4th link.

16. Use jump rings to connected the clasp to the ends of the chain.

17. To finish off the SoftFlex, slide a clamshell onto one end followed by a crimp bead. Crimp the crimp bead at the end of the SoftFlex. Bring the clamshell up to the crimp and bring the clamshell's cups together covering the crimp. Do this to the other side. Use the clamshells' loops to hook onto the jump rings; and push the loop shut to secure.

18. Wear and enjoy.