Fall Classic Necklace

I'm somewhat tardy in finishing my "Colors of Fall" piece for the Artbeads.com blogger program; this challenge totally slipped my mind between all the wedding and honeymoon planning this past summer. For this piece, I knew that I wanted to try one of Cynthia Newcomer Daniel's chain lace tutorials, since her chain lace tuts specifically call for curb chain from Artbeads' base metal components line. Of course I knew that beaded beads would be involved somehow, but I've been so addicted to my new Pagoda beaded charms that it really wasn't much of a choice :)

To match the Colors of Fall, I chose copper chain for the base of the necklace, and red magma Swarovski crystals for the Pagoda charms. I also used crystal copper 4 by 7 mm briolette Swarovski pendants (article no. 6007) in place of the Czech drops, since I generally enjoy experimenting to see if this substitution will work in any of my beading designs.

After experimenting with Cynthia Newcomer Daniel's Chain Lace tut, I eventually settled on a one-sided variation resembling the chain used in her Crowning Glory necklace, using gold, dark metallic garnet, and surprisingly purple seed beads from my own stash. Here's the finished necklace:

The Pagoda Beaded Charms worked great with the briolette Swarovski pendants, the same result I previously achieved with the Teardrop Bubbles and Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead designs as detailed in this previous post. I'm beginning to think that these crystals can be generally substituted for these Czech teardrop beads.

I liked this necklace so much that I kept it for myself :). The copper chain is currently beginning to oxidize compared to when I first took these photos, which is really bringing out the gold seed beads woven into the chain.

A pair of matching earrings completes the set:




The Pagoda Beaded Charm tutorial is currently available on my website. Remember that through 11/28/10, anyone who purchases an item from my Etsy shop or any of the other participating SATeam shops will be entered in a drawing to win a beautiful charm bracelet!

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel has about 4 or 5 chain lace tutorials available in her Etsy and Artfire shops, so be sure to check those out as well.

I named this necklace "Fall Classic" after the nickname of the baseball championship World Series, because I wove the majority of it while listening to game 6 of the NLCS, in which my San Francisco Giants beat the Phillies to advance to the World Series. Since the Giants hadn't won the World Series in 56 years (and never in their time in San Francisco), I was following the game quite intently. By the end of the game, I was getting so excited that I was shaking, and I had to stop beading! I'm still stoked that they went on to beat the Rangers to win it all!

Full disclosure: The swarovski crystals and curb chain used in this necklace were received as a gift from Artbeads.com. No payment was made for the review of these products.