Azzuro in Italian means blue or shade of blue. This wonderful necklace by Fernando really does showcase some of the beautiful shades of blue in the John Bead catalog.
Fernando has created many pieces of jewelry which are displayed in the John Bead showroom. Some of these designs appear in our catalogues and may have been published. For those of you who can’t visit in person, I am going to start a series on this blog giving you a closer look at the finished jewelry. Fernando has written all the instructions and is sharing them with you.
Welcome to the series we call: Fernando DaSilva’s Atelier.
The Azzuro necklace will have you day dreaming about the Mediterranean. If you can’t travel, at least this necklace can give you a temporary vacation feeling. The blues are so gorgeous together!
The agate slab is attached with wire. There are many new slabs in the catalog that already have finished components making them easy to wear.
What Fernando Used
1 blue agate slab (John Bead has many new slabs to choose from)
70 Czech glass leaf pendants
12 Czech blue flower glass beads,
14 African turquoise 8mm smooth roundelle beads
18 Swarovski 6mm emerald AB crystal bicone beads
1 rhodium plated lobster clasp
4 oval jump rings
4 inches of silver plated German style wire
4 silver plated wire guardian (24 000 999)
6 inches white matte chain (74202016)
49 Strands Beadalon .018” bright stringing wire
Pliers Side Cutter (745 27304) Flat Nose (745 27312) Round Nose (745 24883)
Instructions:
1. Use flat portion of chain nose pliers and bend both ends of German style wire around it. Insert piece of German style wire through middle hole of agate slab and press it with two fingers around the agate.
2. Cut a 18 inches piece of stringing wire. Pass wire through the loop of bail made on step 1. String beads following pattern below: one crystal bicone + 5 Czech leave pendants + one blue flower spacer + one turquoise disc + one blue flower spacer . Repeat until you have 20 leaves strung on and finish with one crystal bicone.
3. Add one crimp tube, loop one wire guardian and then slide a jump ring and then pass wire back through crimp tube. Place it next to bicone bead and crimp it properly and then trim excess wire.
4. Repeat step 2 symmetrically to finish the other half of outside strand.
5. Start stringing inside strand of beads through the middle again. Cut another 18 inches of wire for outside strand. String beads following pattern bellow:
6. Czech leave pendants + one crystal bicone + one turquoise disc + one crystal bicone . Repeat this pattern 3 times and then add one more turquoise disc and one last crystal bicone. Finish ends on same fashion was done on outside strand. Repeat step 5 symmetrically to finish the other half of the inside strand.
7. Add piece of chain towards to end of necklace. Count two small round circles on for one side of a necklace, and then count one small circle and one oval link for this side of the necklace. To disassemble chain just uses chain nose pliers.
8. Add lobster clasp with one jump ring on each side of necklace.
* You can wear necklace with nested strands or you can twist both ends and make it shorter.
