Exotic Turquoise

Turn heads this winter with brenda harvey's ethnic-inspired design

Brenda Harvey, Project Designer

An antique silver finish on our beads and findings works really well with turquoise and red, but copper would also look good

Simple beading techniques are used to create these impressively distinctive pieces. By following our simple instructions, even beginners will be able to easily create a glamorous, eye-catching adornment. As well as being easy to work with, semiprecious beads are a great way to achieve an exotic look that's stylishly different.

Necklace

1. Remove the short chain lengths from two necklace clasp connector bars and put to one side. Cut five 45cm lengths of bead stringing wire and thread three with turquoise chips and the other two with sea bamboo nuggets. Laying the strands out on a beading board will help you to gauge the length of each strand (you will find that the bottom strand needs to be much longer then the top one). Include a disc pendant at the midpoint on the top row.
2. Connect the multi-stranded section of the necklace to connector bars. The shortest inside strand with the disc pendant, sits on its own, on the first loop of the connector bar. The second and third holes each carry two strands – one turquoise and one red.
3. Add a single crimp bead and a decorative rondelle at the end of each strand, pass the wire through the connector loop and back down through the rondelle and the crimp. Compress the crimp with flat-nosed pliers, trim the excess wire to 1cm and feed it back through the adjacent beads to hide the end.
4. Cut a 40cm length of bead stringing wire, make a gentle crease at the mid-point and thread through the top single loop on one of the bars. Add the following sequence of beads and spacers, or continue until you reach the required length: a spacer, turquoise disc, spacer, red nugget, spacer, hammered disc, spacer, turquoise disc, spacer, red nugget, spacer, hammered disc, spacer, turquoise disc and a final spacer.
5. Add a single crimp bead followed by one half of a toggle clasp, take the wire back through the crimp bead and compress it with flat-nosed pliers. Trim the excess wire to 1cm and feed it back through the adjacent beads. To finish, repeat this sequence on the other side using the other half of the clasp.

Bracelet

1. Decide on the finished length of your bracelet, including the width of the clasp and cut a piece of bead stringing wire 10cm longer than this. Lay out the design, including a bracelet bar, on a beading mat or board, thread onto the wire and carefully check that the finished length will be correct. Alter the length by adding or subtracting spacer beads and rondelles.
2. At each end add a crimp bead followed by one half of a toggle clasp, take the wire back through the crimp bead and compress it with flat-nosed pliers. Trim the excess to 1cm and feed it back through the adjacent beads to hide the end.

Earrings

1. Cut 25cm of bead stringing wire and thread with a 12cm length of turquoise chips, spacer beads and sea bamboo nuggets. (We also used silver crimp beads as miniature spacers for this design). Bring the two ends together and thread with a few more chips and nuggets plus spacers and a single hammered disc bead.
2. Thread both ends of the wire up into a calotte, add a single crimp and compress it with flatnosed pliers. Trim the wire immediately above the flattened crimp and carefully close the calotte to completely cover it. Add an earwire and use round-nosed pliers to close up the loop on the calotte and hold it in place. Repeat to make a pair.