Pastel Effervescence Set

This fancier version of a basic Remembrance memory wire choker uses reflective faceted crystals, seed beads and amethyst briolettes.

Materials:

Remembrance Memory Wire, necklace size
2 - 1 in. Head pins, silver plated
7 - 1in. Eye pins, silver plated
5 - 4mm Split rings, silver plated
24 gauge ColourCraft Wire, silver color
8 - 6mm Swarovski olivine bicone crystals
9 - 8mm Swarovski olivine bicone crystals
7 - 3/4 in. Amethyst briolettes, or comparable glass briolettes
6 - 6mm Czech windowpane faceted lavender glass beads
32 - 2mm Czech faceted metallic silver glass ovals
32 - 6/0 Lavender clear center glass seed beads
Designer round nose pliers
Designer chain nose pliers
Designer flush cutter
Bead board

Steps:

Note: To complete this project, you will need to be familiar with creating looped and wrapped headpins and eye pins as used in earrings. Don't worry about sourcing the exact beads used here: use the colors and patterns as inspiration for your own unique design. Lay out your beads on a bead board before getting started – it makes it so much easier to plan your design, avoid losing count of the pattern and measure accurately.

Create the seven dangles: Thread each amethyst briolette with 24-gauge silver ColourCraft wire in approximately 2 in. lengths, leaving a 1 in. length coming out of one side of your bead. Fold the one length of wire in half to create a top loop. Wrap the remaining wire tightly around the center of the wire in a figure eight design (you should now have a top and bottom loop with wire wrapped around the center). Clip off the remaining wire and use chain nose pliers to tuck in the end as you would in creating an earring wire. As you wrap each briolette dangle make sure to compare it to the others to approximate uniformity in size and shape of the loops.
Eye pins and bicones: Thread the 4mm Swarovski bicones with eye pins. Create a matching loop at the top of each bead using round nose and chain nose pliers. Do not wrap the wire around itself; you will need to be able to open the wire in order to attach it to the briolettes, the split rings, and the ear wires. You can make your own eye pins using craft wire, but manufactured eye pins provide superior uniformity. Attach five beaded eye pins to split rings for use on the choker. Make two bicone headpin drops with the wire wrapped as in a traditional earring drop for use on the ends of your choker.
Begin beading the memory wire: Begin by looping one side of the wire in on itself to prevent the beads from sliding off! The pattern that I have created here is as follows: metallic faceted – 2 seed beads – metallic faceted – 6mm bicone crystal – metallic faceted – 2 seed beads – metallic faceted windowpane bead – metallic faceted – 2 seed beads – metallic faceted, and so on. After stringing three bicones and two windowpanes with their surrounding beads, start integrating your dangles. In the photo, you will see that the dangles are placed between the seed beads following the 5th , 6th , 8th and 9th large beads with the center dangle falling after the 7th and between two metallic faceted beads. The center dangle performs as a larger bead in the pattern here.
Bead the rest of the memory wire : Repeat the pattern until you reach the other end of your necklace, making it symmetrical with the first half. Fold over the end of your memory wire with chain nose pliers and clip off any excess.
Finish the choker: Add two olivine 6mm bicones on headpins to the ends of the Remembrance wire to create a more polished look to the design.
Bead the Earrings: For the matching earrings, simply attach the dangles made in step 2 to ear wires of your choice using chain nose pliers.