For Diamonds Do Appear to Be Just Like Broken Glass to Me

Jewellery making involves a massive variety of options depending on the end result. Ideally, I would use findings and wire of a high quality metal such as sterling silver, or for something fancier, gold or silver plated (Jayne, Jacquie). The beads could be glass crystals, such as Swarovski, or semi-precious to precious gems. This makes for an exquisite result that is timeless, beautiful, and lasts for a long time. The major drawback to this is the cost: quality beads and materials made of expensive material would come with the hole into your pocket. In addition, these types of projects would require a careful precision and specialty tools, which themselves are quite costly if you chose quality ones.

A more economic option would be to use cheaper materials such as wire made of copper, aluminum, steel, nylon, hemp, etc.; and beads made of plastic, clay, resin, acrylic, or found objects, which leads to endless possibilities. This opens up a lot more room for creativity, but the downfall to this is that cheaper materials may yield lower quality results. Another limitation is that there are less hypoallergenic options available, as commonly found choices will often contain some type of allergenic metal, and even stainless steel can contain up to 12% nickel (Polly).

After much consideration, I chose to use the clear beading cord for all of my projects. This allows me the chance to learn to work with it properly, instead of learning to use a new material each time; the clear beading cord is also more forgiving, as it is easy to untie and retie, manipulate, and hide mistakes. I have also purchased fine point beading needles, which will eliminate the difficulty of multiple loops in the beads that I am using; my project will still follow my original plan of ending with a necklace that combines the techniques that I used for the first two projects.

Works Cited

Jayne, Jacquie. “All About Jewellery Wire.” The Bead’s Knees. n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.

Polly. “Surgical Steel and Hypoallergenic Metals.” Rings and Things. Wordpress. 3 June 2013. Web. 31 May 2014.