Double-Duty Necklace

It's been awhile I didn't make double-duty necklaces: 1) to adorn someone's neck, and 2) to serve as prayer beads. In the past I've made several versions of this style. I started with a short-length adjustable necklace and later made a long one, both using artisan lampwork beads. Besides creating functional pieces, my intention was also to promote lampwork beads in my work. I was a newbie in lampwork beads world and easily got excited when I spotted cool bead designs on internet, in books or magazines. Within a few months, I owned a handful of artisan beads from here and USA! After seeing how unique and beautiful they were in person, I instantly knew they would give some art touches in my designs. Since then I've weighed lampwork beads as equally important materials as Swarovski crystals and sterling silver.

Back to double-duty theme, last year I made necklaces featuring lampwork beads as pendants in different ways. One was hung on one of toggle parts and the other positioned very close to crimped two wire ends. This year I used a sterling connector to hold a lampwork bead pendant.

I also experimented with a very large ring. I was thinking of a prayer beads necklace that would easily slide on a door/window handle or a small hook and I came across a really big lead-free pewter ring (about 32mm in diameter) from TierraCast. I'd read lots of positive comments and feedbacks on internet about this brand and so I thought it was time to prove them. The outcome wasn't disappointing. I should start stocking more TierraCast elements now.

Another recent experiment was a short necklace with Swarovski crystal pearls and copper findings. The photos of famous ladies like Elizabeth Taylor and Princess of Wales Diana wearing pearl necklaces had inspired me to create a simple, timeless, elegant piece. Classic style. And without knots. While generally pearl jewelry are strung knotted, my version of this style was replacing knots with small spacers and crimp beads.

The result may look deceptive. I bet no one would ever think in first place that this necklace is actually prayer beads!

Autumnal Flavour

These pieces were made to cherish the current season. Copper and topaz colors are the highlights.

Pink Laguna

For some people, inspirations can come from unexpected places or objects. Mine is from a photo frame.

Two weeks ago I was thinking of new ideas for this big floral focal bead and always got stuck with my search for right colors of the crystals to match. The next thing I knew I should discard the color schemes. The necklace was made for a lady in late 40s and I didn’t expect to see color combinations that fit more for little girls and teenagers (for example, some colors used in this set). Just when I was about to give up my attempt for that day, the photo frame idea came to mind. Decorated frames I'd seen in crafts books or gift shops. Imagine this: a picture in a black-colored wooden frame with a few little beads randomly glued on its sides; or a cushioned frame with stiched beads around it. The beads don't have to come in similar colors to those in the picture. They're there for the frame. So here’s my interpretation with this frame idea.


A beautiful pink lampwork focal on dark-oxidized sterling silver chains accented with Swarovski crystals and a Bali silver toggle. The focal’s colors pop. The darker shades of the crystals represent grace and dignity. The firefly toggle adds a dash of cuteness. One of a kind.

Luxe Feelings

It’s always a pleasure to work with beautiful materials.


I’ve recently made some new designs with lampwork beads, Swarovski crystals and sterling silver, and this time I’ve felt a tremendous thrill to see the results. They’re full of blings and glams giving such luxe feelings to the wearers.


Many times people come to me and say that it’s sometimes difficult to find the right clothes to go with jewelry pieces I make. Well, the simplest and best thing to do is to choose soft plain fabric in a single color. To start with, try blouses, shirts or dresses in black and white as they’d be great with any colors. Or pick one color that’s similar to the colors of the jewelry for another option. Try also clothes in one color hue like blue, brown, purple, green, etc, that would coordinate nicely with the overall color combination of the jewelry. These are a few easy ways that I’ve tried for myself and worked wonderfully when it comes to choosing what to wear (clothes and jewelry); so I think they might work magic with you, too. Feel free to try!


Click here to see other designs. Some are sets and some necklaces.

Funky Wonky & Purplelicious Garden

I should’ve updated my blog earlier but the summer heat has kept me away from my computer. The temperature has reached above 30 degrees and I feel like living in a big oven night and day. So hot and humid! If only I had an aircon installed in my place, oh… that would be very very nice.

So here’s the latest news. I have two necklace projects published in Creative Jewelry 2010 magazine: Funky Wonky and Purplelicious Garden.


The Funky Wonky necklace features Mallory Hoffman’s multi-colored lampwork discs which are not perfectly circled. But this imperfection is something I’d like to show off in my design. Since the discs have layers of colors and dots around their edge which make them look distinctive and interesting, I wanted these elements to get noticed when the necklace is worn. So I strung each disc on a bright silver chain and connected each chain with a jump ring. It’s a pretty simple project to make.


The other necklace is Purplelicious Garden. It's a show-stopping piece that displays a big lampwork focal bead by Crystal Brashear surrounded with Swarovski crystals and peacock-colored freshwater keishi pearls. The focal bead is particularly beautiful. I fell in love with its delicate flower motifs and color scheme even though purple isn’t my favorite color.


If the photo above isn't convincing enough to prove my word, take a look at these earrings. I've made them with smaller beads of similar floral design. Aren't they lovely?

Chain & Metal Style

Chain and metal style is getting more popular. I’ve seen many fabulous designs using layers of chain and mix of metals from copper, brass, bronze, pewter and gunmetal. These non-precious metal types are favoured for their economical price and thus making them ideal subtitutes to gold and silver. Their colors ranging from brown to yellow to grey tones also add special charm to jewelry pieces.

I started to mix metal components last year when making a pair of earrings to match the Earth Dance bracelet. I needed to see how the design would look like if I attached copper pin dangles to vermeil ear wires. I avoided non-sterling silver type for the ear wires to prevent myself from getting allergic.

My first tryout wasn’t up to my expectation but I was pleased to learn that mixing brown and gold colors would lead to an acceptable result. So I moved on to another earring project featuring caramel-like colored lampwork beads. I had tried vermeil headpins to hang the beads but felt their colors didn’t really blend. Brown copper pins looked better to hang them and I let the gold touch shine from the vermeil lever-back earring wires.

Since then I’ve done more chain and metal experiments in my work. If you check out my Flickr gallery, there are a few bracelet designs that explore variety of copper findings (Ivory Swirls, Potpourri, Romantic Bloom). Other designs use more of sterling silver in different finishes: bright, light oxidized and dark oxidized. I admit sterling silver is still my preference and the different finishes of sterling silver give me wider possibility to create quality wearable pieces.

Color Study

I’ve been in a playful mood with big beads. I mean really big beads, as big as 4cm in size. The bigger, the better!

For one thing, large beads would get noticed due to their size. If they’re hung on a single chain, they’ll be a statement piece. People would see them undistracted. Then, another good thing, the presence of colors, motifs, textures, shapes and other features applied on the beads would be visibly recognized.

Recently I’ve done color experimentation with three large focals. Captivated with the multicolors on each focal, I was intrigued to make simple long necklaces based on their palette. I’ve stocked up Swarovski crystals in rainbow of colors and I thought finding the matching colors of the crystals to be paired with the focals would be a fun challenge. It would be impossible if I couldn’t find some. And yes, I was right!



There are yellow, orange, dark pink, sparkling brown, dark green, light green, red, turquoise, and white. I reflected all of them in variety of crystals except brown. Leaving out one color wouldn’t disgrace the overall look of the necklace. The complete design of the necklace is shown in here.



White, green, orange, red, blue, black, yellow… What a mix of bold colors! Here I tried minimalism. I wanted one color to play dominantly, so I picked bright red as the dominant color accented with green and blue without overwhelming the presence of the heart focal. If I used this method with other colors from the focal palette, the result wouldn’t be much different. The focal bead would still be a centre of attention. Click here to see the necklace in full.



Now I wanted to expose this focal with unmatching colors of the crystals. The variegated brown and blue give the flat-sided focal an earthy feeling and I searched different colors that bear a similar feeling. Red magma – the new color from Swarovski – is the one. When I put all the beads together, they clicked right away. See the entire necklace in here.

Most of the findings used for these necklaces are oxidized sterling silver. Dark-colored sterling silver makes the beads’ colors pop and is also a wonderful alternative to black cord.

Changeable Earrings

Try this: changeable earrings. One earring findings for more than one earring dangle. Does it sound interesting?


This is not a new idea but it’s a smart way to wear earrings. I’m pretty happy to have found the leverback sterling silver ear wires that are specially designed for changeable dangles. Simply slide a dangle onto a piece of ear wire and clip its leverback (a closure attached to a curve ear wire) to secure. Quick and easy!

In general, flower motif beads appeal to anyone especially those who just begin to appreciate lampwork glass beads. Thus I’ve made several dangles featuring many kinds of flowers created by various lampwork bead artists. Since I intended them for everyday wear, their designs are pretty basic as shown in the next photo. Sure it’s always possible to make dangles with more delicate and more elaborate designs for the changeable earring style.


And here’s another thing. Changeable earrings are great as a gift. I usually put one set of ear wires and two dangle pairs in a beautifully-presented box for any occasion from birthday to friendship to farewell (and any other dear moments). Who wouldn’t be pleased to receive two pairs of lovely dangles in a single package?

Bright Warm Days!

I realize I haven’t put much attention to my blog and Flickr gallery lately. I did update them but not as many times as I’d expected. My mood to do any jewelry-related stuff seemed to be set in frequent silent mode during this year’s winter. Seeing snowy ground and lack-of-sunshine sky in the wintry chill for more than three months was distressing enough. Rather than immersed myself in jewelry work, I opted to cook or read or play with my kids. Thank heaven the winter is now over! It’s been a wonderful warmer weather for the last three weeks and I feel I’ve got my creative spirits back. There are a few new designs completed since days have turned bright and hopefully soon I’ll post them on my blog and Flickr.

When All Eyes See...

What you wear.




See more of past earrings designs in here.

Show me PEARLS!

Next to Swarovski crystals and artisan lampwork beads, I have a special love for… pearls! Yes, pearls!!


These naturally-colored creamy peach keishi pearls are beauties to die for! They are thick-nacred, lustrous and have smooth surface for the most part. I love them so much and couldn’t think of a better idea than bringing them into spotlight of everyone’s sight as they deserve it. To make most of their fabulous appearance, I used up almost the entire pearl strand (there was only one pearl left as the wire didn’t go through its tiny holes) but alas the length was a little too short for a necklace considering the size and type of the pearls. So I added a few Swarovski crystals in silk color to reach a desired length and a small set of floral lampwork beads for extra visual interest to the design and voila! There are two ways to show off the pearls. When it’s worn like shown in the photo, you’ll get the look of timeless elegance. When it’s worn with the clasp on the chest, you’ll get the elegance style with additional sparkles and modern feel. Curious? Click here to see what I just described.

I’ve used similar type of pearls for another necklace displaying beauty of elegance and glamour. The design aims to feature the luminous purplish-pinkish tone (and a little bit of creamy peach too) of the keishis so I set them in the middle between variety of Swarovski crystals in coordinating colors. The result is like this.