Pearls

I'm not too good at knotting yet either, but I've been practicing with some plastic beads. Haven't been able to slide my knots into place too well, but that might work better with a better thread. You'll have to show us what you do with those pearls.

Karleen, those are all gorgeous! I love the colors in the freeform set, and the Oceanic blues are beautiful.

Thank you kathy!

I found a lovely strand of 10mm white pearls, but I simply wirewrapped them with 28 gauge SS wire into a simple headband for my daughter's wedding, with instructions to her to take it apart and use the pearls afterwards.

Just my personal opinion, but I think your pearls would look lovely as a simple necklace... then just get one fantastic clasp that you can position at the front or at the side when you wear it. And knotting is not that hard, it just takes patience. :) Knotting on silk would also extend the length of the strand of pearls to be longer than 16".

Whatever you do, be careful of using silver as spacers. When the silver tarnishes, it will transfer to the surface of the pearl. Have fun creating! :)

Thank you, Karleen. The concept is not mine, but I'm glad you like the bracelet. :))))

Thanks, Tina! lol to the name of the bracelet... I didn't name it. This was made from a kit I bought at the 2005 Bead & Button show. The woman who put the kit together and named the bracelet is none other than Nanette Young-Greiner, of

and she still sells the kits on her webpage for $65.00. It sounds like a lot of money, but it comes with everything... wire, thread, crimps, clasp, needles and all the beads you need.

Of course, I had to add more of my own beads when completing it... I like really full bracelets. And I used almost every single bead she had in the kit - only had about 75 seed beads left when I finished. :) Thank you for the compliment!

the headband you described sounds amazing. You have any pictures of it?

Pearl knotting is just not my thing. I tried it a year or so ago... I was making a pearl necklace for my mom for xmas and I tried, really I did. But, I just couldn't get the hang of it. I guess I should break down and buy that pearl knotter gizmo thingamabobbi and see if that helps. I ended up stringing that pearl necklace for my mom onto jewelers wire, added a few 14k gold stardust beads and she loved it. She's a gold gurl, so anything I do for her I have to use 14k.

Sterling

Just my personal opinion, but I think your pearls would look lovely as a simple necklace... then just get one fantastic clasp that you can position at the front or at the side when you wear it. And knotting is not that hard, it just takes patience. :) Knotting on silk would also extend the length of the strand of pearls to be longer than 16".

Whatever you do, be careful of using silver as spacers. When the silver tarnishes, it will transfer to the surface of the pearl. Have fun creating! :)

Hi, Sterling. :) You made me get up off my butt and upload the pictures of the wedding jewelry I made for my birthdaughter. You can see the headband, necklace and 2 bracelets here:

(I forgot to take pics of the earrings) The Kate McKinnon Thai Silver and Pearl (it's the carpet of beads) bracelet was made extra wide to cover a tattoo she had on her wrist, so it's almost

2.5 inches wide and the finished product weighed almost 6 ounces! Whole lotta pearls, and love, went into that bracelet! I hope you enjoy looking at the wedding jewelry... as much as I did making it. :)

Whoa Linda, that bracelet is killer!! To die for!

Thank you kindly, Valerie. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it. :))))))) Now I want one for MEMEMEME. lol

I started another one, but I'm not happy with it. I tried doing one end with larger champagne pearls blending into smaller champagne colored pearls at the other end, but it doesn't look right. So I guess I'll be ribbeting on that one for awhile.

I hate it when that happens...but that's also one of the fun parts of designing too. So it's like a catch 22. lol! Maybe something else will grow from the mishap.

Wonderful pieces! Congrats on your daughter's wedding.

OH MY GAWD! Absolutely Stunning!

I really like that pfat bracelet. Its right up my alley, and I'd wear it even though I am already married and not likely to have another wedding.

*lol*

I gotta tell ya that your Tucker looks just like my Cubby. He adopted us about a year or so ago. Before that, he was basically the cul-de-sac cat. He belonged to another family in the cul-de-sac, but he knew everybody's homes inside and out. He'd come in for a bite to eat and wonder around, then move on to a neighbors house making the rounds!! When his first family grew up and went to college, the mom didn't want to "deal" with a cat any more so we took over. Cubby went from our house to a neighbors house for about 4 weeks before he settled on ours since we don't have kids. (he does not like kids of any age) Tucker's marking and Cubby's marking are so similar that they could be from the same litter.

Sterling

2.5 inches wide and the finished product weighed almost 6 ounces! Whole lotta pearls, and love, went into that bracelet! I hope you enjoy looking at the wedding jewelry... as much as I did making it. :)

Thanks, Karleen. A good time was had by all at the wedding and they are very still very happy together. She found herself a good man. :)))))

Thank you very much, Sterling! :))) Daughter does still wear the bracelet a lot, so it's not languishing in a box somewhere, thank heaven. I really love the bracelet too, and had such a great time creating all of the pieces for her special day. :)

Loved your description, too.... PFAT. LOL... that's it totally. :))))

Cubby sounds too cute... just like Tucker, eh? Is your Cubby a handful?? Tuck sure is... he's constantly runnning around the house madly, meowing constantly - even more than my siamese cats used to! Tonight he yowled and climbed the screen when he saw a racoon on our deck... heh... so funny to see him hanging there on the patio door screen. Good thing my husband found some 'cat-proof' screen when he replaced it 3 years ago. Tucker hasn't stopped hanging from that screen since he was a kitten and used to climb it to the top of the door. I have a pic of him on my Picturetrail account of his little kitten body hanging there... which is a LOT different from today, 3 years later. He weighs over 13 pounds now! Pure muscle, too. His thighs are huge. Prolly from all that mad running around the house. lol

Headbutts and purrs from my Tuck to your Cub. :)))))

Terrific! I'm so happy for her. In search of "ONE OF THOSE" [GOOD MEN] myself...

OK I have astigmatism and sometimes I misread things,,,, I read that "Cubby is a meow-ful" LOL Kind of put the first two lines together. Sounds kinda cute though, doesn't it?

What is catproof screen and where do you find it? My cat has slaughtered my screen door! He thinks the only way he can get fed is climb up and hold on for dear life! I feed him [at least] twice a day! But he never believes he'll get the next meal! LOL

You'll find one Karleen. You're a fantastic person and anyone who doesn't see that needs to be knocked upside the head. lol!

Re: Catproof screen... husband bought it from ACE Hardware and it was labeled as "Animal Resistant".

"Ace is the place with yer friendly, hardware man." :))))