Gold Rush

Join richly coloured beads with metal tubes to create corinne bradd's elegant accessories

Corinne Bradd, MJ Designer

Ocean shades of blue and green are complemented beautifully by gold components in this stylish necklace and earring set. The tubes not only add texture with their different patterns, but help to form the multi-layered design of the necklace for a subtle take on the ultra-fashionable bib necklace.

Earrings

1. Create two rings of five indicolite bicones by threading onto a length of beading elastic and tying tightly. Glue the knot and trim the ends. Stack up one head pin with a montana and a peridot bicone, place an indicolite ring above these and finish with a green glass bead, a gold ball and a blue zircon bicone. Trim the top of the head pin to 10mm and bend into a loop with round-nosed pliers. Fix to an earwire with a gold jump ring. Repeat to make a pair.

Necklace

1. Cut a 20cm length of gold wire and thread on a gold ball, blue zircon bicone, montana crystal, gold ball, green glass bead, gold ball, montana gem and blue zircon bicone. Allow the beads to fall to the centre of the wire and pass the end back through the first gold ball to form a loop. Add a 25mm gold-filled tube, capri blue gem, peridot crystal and a montana bicone to each end and place to one side.
2. Cut a second 20cm length of gold tiger tail and place a 35mm chequered tube in the centre. Join this to the first piece of wire with a crimp on both sides, squeezed up tightly with flat-nosed pliers. Thread a gold ball onto both strands of wire at either side and push down so they cover the crimps. Trim the ends of the first piece of wire.
3. Slip on a blue zircon gem and peridot bicone onto each side of the wire, followed by a crimp bead. Fix a 8cm length of wire into the crimp on one side of the necklace and then thread with a capri blue gem, green glass bead, montana crystal, peridot stone, green glass bead, peridot bicone, montana gem, green glass bead and a capri blue crystal. Fix the end of the wire into the crimp on the other side of the necklace as before. Trim the ends of this length to 10mm.
4. Place spiral 18mm gold tubes over the wires and put aside. Cut a 50cm length of wire and thread on a gold crimp, montana bicone, green glass bead, peridot crystal, capri blue gem, 25mm plain tube, capri blue bicone, peridot stone, green glass bead, montana crystal and another crimp. Allow the beads to fall to the centre and fix to the necklace with the crimps as before. Trim the shorter wires and cover the crimps with gold ball beads.
5. Thread a peridot bicone, montana stone, green glass bead, capri blue crystal, peridot gem and blue zircon bicone onto each long wire before fixing the ends to a jump ring and clasp with gold crimps. Create a ring of gems with the remaining beads onto a length of wire, secure with a crimp and fix to the chequered tube with a pair of jump rings.