Here is a simple stash-busting project – an elegant pearl necklace for a Napoleonic lady to wear to a New Year’s ball!
These large tanzanite rhinestone crystals have been burning a hole in my stash since I received them as a present a year ago, and today – on New Year’s eve – i was resolved (ha) to finally do something with them. I went on a bead-box rummage, and dug up a sixteen-inch strand of faux pearls, a bag of pear-shaped mountings to match the rhinestones and a very nice little bean clasp.
I spent an enjoyable hour cutting apart and re-knotting the pearls, and a less enjoyable half-hour mounting the rhinestones (they were just VERY slightly too small for the mountings and they tended to skitter), and then a further very annoying ten minutes wrestling with very small jump rings as I hooked the pendant drops onto the pearl strand!
The end result, however, was very pretty and worth all of the annoyance, and I immediately went around taking pictures of my new necklace in the lovely New Year’s afternoon light. Ta-dah! (Ahem. Pearl-knotting is very easy and heaps of fun. This is my favorite tutorial for pearl knotting beginners!)
Here she is, a Napoleonic pearl necklace all ready to sparkle at a ball at the Palace of Fontainebleau on New Year’s night, perhaps around the neck of an Imperial sister or sister-in-law, or perhaps not – definitely, it would be much better worn by ME!
As you see – I can bring ALL the New Year Bling!
For real elegance against the stones the pearls should be smaller, but no Napoleonic lady worth her pearls would ever quibble the SIZE of them – she’d grab those honkers, string on some amethysts and sail out into the ballroom, angling towards the candlelight as she went!
