Floral Necklace with Garnets and Sterling Silver

 I made this necklace for myself, with only my own taste and likes in mind. It's rather short, almost choker size, and symmetrical, or as symmetrical as you can make anything made by hand alone.

I strung the focal flower as well so it does not slide but sort of centers the necklace by its weight. I have a problem with the clasp at the back of my neck wandering forward because it's the heaviest part of the entire necklace, and it's not something I particularly like. This puts an end to all that.

And I love garnets. Especially with unoxidized silver. The contrast between the deep wine red and the bright white.

Still I'm planning to make a similar necklace using iolite beads. They do not have the distinct depth of colour as the garnets do, but are lovely in their own right, with their polarizing shift between ink blue and brown.

This is the first time I actually compose a flower from briolettes. I have hesitated because I have suspected it would be uneven, crooked or might even break the briolettes in the making. So I supported the briolette ring with a heavier gague wire flower outline, and wrapped the thin wire that runs through the briolettes around the ring of briolettes and the wire of the flower outline to join them. It worked quite well. I ended that wire by running it through a 4mm sterling round in the center of the flower.

Jeez, it even looks like I planned it!