Amethyst, my favorite

I was quite pleased with the blue necklace which was featured in the previous posting.  I have just got to continue making another piece before my 'creative' juice dried up.  So I took out my favorite stones (Amethyst), staring hard at them as though was waiting for their approvals to my intended design.  And....................................................................................................................... tada, a new necklace was born:

Well, it is nothing fantastic but the fun was in the designing process.  Firstly, I had this big metal leave which I needed to get rid of so I incorporated it in the design.  I did not want it to be the domineering focal object thus three dangling stones were added to dampen the starkness.

As the deep purple was a deep color, too much of it will be too heavy looking.  I chose the Clear Quartz to match with the Amethyst so as to lighten the look.  (Amethyst is also a kind of Quartz which is colored by impurities)  The little light purple faux Cat Eyes were added to complement the main stones.

Asymmetrical is always my preference in design so I applied it in the shorter chain.  The 'intended' look is shown in the second picture above.  However (haha, this word spells trouble!) the actual look when wearing is not like that:

Aaaaaw, this is awful!  The shorter chain falls outside of the longer one and it is of U shape instead of V shape.  Design disaster!!!  




Mayday! Mayday!  Someone Please come forward to rescue!

Malachite and Rhodonite Earrings

Though I like natural gemstones, I am quite clueless as to their names.  I have heard about those precious gemstones like diamond, ruby, emerald and sapphire. I have also heard about those semi-precious ones like amethyst, citrine, opal, onyx and Jade.  I may even be able to identify them or their look-a-likes by their colors (Haha, how ignorant I am!).  However, there are a lot of unique looking stones which I really need to google hard to find out their actual names.  The green stone named Chrysocolla in my previous post is one of them.

The stones that I used in the two pairs of earrings below are also new to me:

Malachite - Herrigbone weave

Rhodonite

The Malachite earrings were made with the instruction from Eni Oken at http://www.creativespotlite.com/jewelry/herringbone-weave.htm.  The stones are pretty but the wire wrapping? so-so. Hey, that was my first attempt so I have excuse not to have done it well! LOL!  

Any way, it is a mistake using these beads for earrings because they are too heavy.  May be I will wire wrap a few more of the beads and use them to make either a bracelet or necklace together with these two wire wrapped beads.

I was not sure if the pink stone in the bottom picture was Rhodonite or Rhodochrosite.  I googled the names and found a good description to distinguish the two: 

Differentiating Rhodochrosite and Rhodonite
There is a very simple way to differentiate rhodochrosite and rhodonite, despite their very similar colors. Rhodochrosite is usually found with white banding throughout, sometimes with other colors as well. Rhodonite, on the other hand, is found in more of a flat color, sometimes with black inclusions.

- http://www.beadage.net/glossary/index.php?term=rhodochrosite

My conclusion - Rhodonite!  The cost of it also confirmed it is Rhodonite as Rhodochrosite is more expensive.

The earrings were not mis-matched as it seemed.  This one of my favorite style - asymmetrical.  Below are two others of my earlier asymmetrical work:

 

The pink pair was made using leftover beads.  My friend likes it so it is hers now.