Necklaces fashioned by means of metal beads have ever been in vogue with women for hundreds of years. Those fashion necklaces are created by utilizing diverse metals in a plethora of colors, designs, sizes, and shapes. Also, metal beads are frequently made use of by mixing and matching with other kinds of beads like gemstones in the creation of dazzling jewelry. Metal beads as also gemstones are used in the crafting of necklaces, essentially in two ways or stages:
Wire wrapping
One essential component of creating jewelry is wire wrapping and the unique technique has been with us for a long, long time. This is very a crucial skill that can be highly helpful in almost all beading projects. However, it requires some perseverance to bring about consistent and neat results. Wire wrapping is specifically appropriate when gemstone beads are involved, especially the ones with little holes in them. In this context, 28 gauged non-tarnish wire, colored gold, copper or silver, is ideal as well as appropriate for the purpose. Pieces of jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, are often produced by availing of this technique.
All those smiths who are engaged in making jewelry are wont to use certain kinds and specifications of wire by wrapping it around in circles many times over the tops of gemstones or beads with a view to embellish them. Suppose you happen to possess a natural gemstone pendant, rectangular in shape sans any hole, but wish to use the stone as a pendant for a necklace all the same. In such a scenario, wire wrapping remains the best technique to realize this specific design, although you do not intend to use jewelry wire to wrap many circles atop the pendant. Here, you can utilize a couple of transparent luster beads made of glass, in various sizes and just one metal bead. While doing so, it is better to use metal bead/s that are of the same color as the jewelry wire to make it seem perfect.
To begin with, make use of the jewelry wire to wrap a gemstone. Initially, make a special wrapping on the top of the precious stone, and as you do so, you can also string the larger as well as glass luster bead, metal bead on the two straight wires. And now, you might as well wrap several small circles atop the little glass bead and form a loop using the rest of the jewelry wire with the aid of jewelry pliers. Append the wire-wrapped gemstone pendant onto a leather cord and then attach clasps to it. Thus a wire-wrapped metal beads and gemstone necklace is created.
Stringing beads or gemstones
After wire wrapping which forms the initial stage of forging a metal bead or gemstone necklace, the next step is to string the beads and stones. This is done by making effective use of materials such as bicone along with tiny metal bead spacers that are round in shape, delicate tube and round metal beads, oval topaz and blue rectangle beads, oval sunstone as well as iolite beads. As to the quantity required for every type of bead, it is dependent on the length of the necklace to be made. At this juncture, it is always better to go for jewelry wire that is of the same hue as the metal beads that you are going to use anyway, along with crimp bead as also crimp cover in order to be attached to either extremities of the wire. Then begin stringing eight pieces of blue topaz bead in the systematic order of two pieces of rectangle and two pieces oval, the two dissimilar shapes separated by bead spaces that are small and round in shape. After this step, begin stringing metal beads and gemstone beads one after another.
The hues of the gemstone can be chosen in a random fashion, but ensure sure that the bulbous metal beads that are delicate to begin with, are strung in the central portion of the necklace. Once the stringing of every metal bead is done with, go on to string the rest the of metal and gemstone beads along the initial part of the necklace and finish the whole process by fixing a clasp to the wire. Now if you examine the necklace that you have just created, you ought to discover that the various gemstones that you have arranged in the necklace truly underscore every different metal bead and gemstone that you have used.