Michaels Toast of the Town Necklace Hop

Toast of the Town Necklace by Erin

The Quick Fire Challenge: Michaels Toast of the Town Necklace Hop is being put on by the wonderful Erin.  Back in October Erin pariticpated in the October Jewelry Celebrations at Michaels.com. 

Erin and Michaels came up with an idea called Quick Fire Challenge.  Erin had a give away of three sets of different beads and she had a drawing and sent those beads to the winners.  But Erin is letting others participate in this challenge too.

Erin's Instructions and Our Finished Piece

Erin provided us the instructions for her Toast of the Town necklace.  Erin said we could use any color palette and any beads that we like.  The point of this challenge is to show that Erin's design could be made with any bead and any palette.

These are the beads we bought from Michaels.com.  Starting from left to right: Turquoise dyed howlite cross 16mm, red chips dyed bamboo coral beads (2 packages), and reconstituted turquoise (16x20mm).

Mom laid out the beads so we had an idea of what we were starting with.  We used beads from our stash to fill in between the beads from Michaels.  We used agate, jasper and red rondell beads (from Karin our last bead soup partner).

Southwest Twist

Mom and I are calling this piece Southwest Twist because of the colors.

Enameled Copper clasp

Mom and I didn't find a clasp we liked at Michaels and we didn't have a big enough clasp to go with this piece.  So, we made our own.  Mom took one of our Sterling Silver clasps and scanned it into the computer.  She then re-sized the clasp, I think three different sizes.  Mom then printed off the page and we cut out the different clasps and compared the sizes to our necklace until we found one that was just right.

Mom sawed out the clasp from 20 gauge copper and then I enameled the clasp with two different opaque reds trying to match the colors of the beads.  I think the clasp came out pretty good if I do say so myself ;)

Here is a picture of the beads strung on the beading wire - the bamboo chips; a strand of the turquoise, agate and the red rondell beads; strand of bamboo chips; and a strand of the howlite and jasper beads.

So, that is our challenge piece - Southwest Twist.  Mom and I had a lot of fun in Michaels picking out colors for our beads.  We had fun sitting down and reading Erin's instructions (just so you know mom and I both suck at reading instructions.  Mom is a picture person and I am either winging it [then yelling at mom for help] or I have mom show me what to do).  So, this was a really challenge for both of us.  But hey, we only had to string the piece once and that is a major accomplishment for us :)

Thank you again Erin for letting us participate!  If you would like to see who else is participating head on over to Erin's blog and check it out.