Caterina Necklace – Part of the Medici Collection

Don’t ask me why I fell in love with these huge, step cut, rectangle crystals that looked like pieces of chocolate (Swarovski Step Cut Fancy Stones 4582)! They did look delicious though when they arrived and I couldn’t wait to team them up with some gorgeous little size 15º Czech Charlottes. I must say I am seriously considering wearing little cotton gloves when beading with large crystals from now on, because they look so fabulous when in their pristine packaging, but as soon as you take them out and start handling them, they pick up fingerprints and oils from your skin. However, a quick polish brings them back up to their original glory. Well, last night I finally put the last chocs in place and set the two 4mm crystals in place in the toggle – PHEW – didn’t get much sleep as a consequence. I had thought I was being clever making the toggle ring and bar quite a while ago, and I was really miffed when I came to put the bar on and couldn’t find it for the life of me. How annoying is that? So I had to make another one! I’ll soon be putting the instructions for the Caterina necklace into my online shop, but for now they are available upon request by email: beadschool@gmail.com.

Ooh I’m such a magpie that I had to search for more sparkly, big, fat crystals and I found some amazing topaz, flat-back mosaic squares (2483). Now I’m champing at the bit to get cracking with them. Afraid I had to get some more 24K gold-coated Charlottes as it’s going to be another big project (see Isabella necklace)!