Turquoise, Tyvek, and Turkmen Necklace

There's something so magical about Turkmen jewelry parts that make me go oooh and aaaah every time I look at them. I've amassed quite a collection of them--every time I order from Gwen Lafluer's website, I always get a few more...they're like candy without any calories!

Over the years, I've used them for earrings, as extra bling on mixed media pieces, and especially as beautiful "danglies" off the signatures of my handmade journals. 

I decided that a necklace with all my favorite Turkmen pieces would be fantastic. So, I pulled out my bead board, thin beading wire, my many supplies, and started puttering.

Well, I went a little overboard and the necklace was just too heavy and didn't hang properly so I had to rethink my concept. I wanted to include some of the larger Turkmen coin pendants  and the adorable Czech glass elephant beads, but they made the necklace too heavy. (But I WILL use them in future creations!)

 

Here's some other arrangements I tried that didn't quite work out:

I also tried mixing colors other than blues and aquas with the Turkmen parts, but I didn't love it. 

The multicolored beads did NOT work together, so I scrapped that idea and tried a light green bead with the Turkmen parts. Not bad, but not great, so I went back to the blue tones.

I finally decided to make some more of my own handmade tyvek beads, created from recycled USPS mailing envelopes and Lumiere acrylic paint so I would have enough for a necklace. They are very lightweight, which was important for this necklace.

Once I had the bottom of the necklace balanced and hanging properly, I added more tyvek beads, small aqua seed beads, silver separators, and a closure. The finished necklace measures 22" long.

 

 

Check out the many amazing and unique items on Gwen's website; I know you'll be as inspired as I am!