Strung and Beadwoven Necklace

Making this necklace reminded me of my first jewelry pieces that I used to make.
Before I started to learn to bead weave and got hooked on it, I used to play and string different kinds of beads to make necklaces and bracelets. I also remember that I used to make a lot of earrings, combined with wire working, but now I don't make them anymore. Bead weaving is much more fun for me! It is like painting or sculpting, two things that I also like to do, but with beads. So, in this necklace I combined my old and currant passions – stringing and bead weaving.
I used Tiger Eye round beads, gold resin beads and a beautiful Volcano cherry quartz (manmade) focal bead – all strung between 2 Herringbone ropes, made with Miyuki triangle beads.
I also used beautiful natural stones, that I am not quite sure of their kind. I immediately fell in love with those beads when I saw them in the store in the Gemstones section, and decided to buy them even though no one at the store could tell me what they are.
I asked one of my beadweaving students who used to work in the jewelry industry to try and identify the stones, and she said they are Amethyst. I think she is right, because in one of the photos, where the light goes through the beads, you can see the purple Amethyst color. If you have a guess of what they are, I would love to know what you think.
But no matter what they are, don't you love the rough cut, the little cracks and the deep color they have?

Herringbone Necklace

Those of you who read my posts would already know that Herringbone technique is my favorite beading technique in times when I am not very creative and/or being a bit lazy with my beadwork, but still need to satisfy my beading addiction ;). The past few days have been so, and this is what I came up with. I like how the beaded bead came out. It took me about 6 hours to make it, which is quite quickly... It was hard to take pictures of this piece, and the colors shown in the photographs are a bit different from what they really are (don't ask me why, I wouldn't know anything about it :)).

Fan Pendant Necklace

Fan Pendant Necklace