The Lorelei-Nancy necklace challenge

Last Sunday I played a little hooky and drove up to Lorelei's house to have a play day. We ended up shopping for beads and came up with the idea to have a challenge. We purchased the same six strands of beads and we made a few rules; we had to each make our own clasp, we could use any focal bead we wanted and we could bring in several other elements such as chain, other colors and wire...

I started by stealing my own porcelain flower piece from my Extra shop. I was thrilled to see that I had a brown one still in stock (who would have thought I would be happy something didn't sell?). I made this half flower piece with a lot of holes - at the time I was thinking "more holes means more options!" I started by going crazy with chain and draping and dripping it all over the place. That just wasn't doing it for me so I took it all apart and ended up creating this mega long fringe.

How dreamy is this cascade of smoky teal mother-of-pearl beads, I ask you? (Answer: extra dreamy!)

I love the way the carved floral bone beads mimic the flower in my pendant! Love it when that happens!
The deep teal crystal beads were the one bead I added to the mix. That color is just too perfect, there was no way I could not use them. And I am quite taken with the juxtaposition of the classy, fancy crystal to the rough brown lava and then the carved bone. That kind of thing makes me stupid with joy. :)

The rest of the necklace is a mishmash of the remaining beads that we had to use. I simply linked them with wire.

I made these copper teardrop pieces to house the other carved bone beads we bought. I really love the bone beads - the texture, the weight... yep, they are bone (as Lorelei said "They are someone's bone, I can't think about it!), but I am smitten with it.

My clasp is nothing spectacular, just simple. I always think that I will make some extraordinary closure and then when the time comes I just want to finish the piece and get it over with. Perhaps next time I should start with the clasp.

So there you have it! The first Lorelei-Nancy necklace challenge comes to an end! I can't wait to see what Lori has come up with. The suspense is killing me!!!!

Hope everyone enjoyed this! We will be doing it again, hopefully soon, so keep your eyes peeled. :)