I have been lurking on this forum for a few years, this is my first
post. I am a fairly accomplished lapidary, quite good at cutting
cabs. My wife Marcia is an excellent wirewrap artist. Both of us have
been learning silversmithing (fabrication). I could use some advice
on necklace connections. Most of the necklaces I envision are
basically multiple individually mounted cabs strung/joined together
somehow. My first attempt at using short pieces of wire with balled
ends didn’t work so well, so a design change made the silver wires
shaped like [. This works better, but the necklace still doesn’t want
to lay right, and tends to want to tangle.
Reviewing some of my books and publications seems to show that many
folks basically just sting the pieces on a chain, with some sort of
bead spacing the pieces apart. This has potential, but I more
interested in piece to piece connections. I would love to find the
mythical book “500 Necklace Styles”, but doubt it exists.
So my questions:
Does anyone know of a reference book/article/post that might educate
me some on this subject?
Would some of you kind folks be willing to share some of your
experience with me?
I wasn’t sure by the “[” shape you mentioned how you were actually
connecting them. And sorry, I don’t know of a specific book that’s
in-depth about such connections. Usually if I am joining together
bezel set stones (whether they be stone or some other material) into
a chain I attach 1/2 rings to each side and then link them together
with rings, and I’ve found that works fine. See an example at
For a piece I did recently I wanted some individually made units (in
this case filigree, not bezels) to be able to be strung along with
beads between and then onto a pearl necklace, I didn’t want the jump
ring connection between the sections like with that other piece. In
this case I soldered skinny tubing to the tops of the sections & then
just strung through them like they were beads. I suppose the same
thing could be done with bezels, soldering skinny tubing along the
top edge. It gives a different look, then they are connected along
the top & can fan out, as opposed to being connected all in a line.
The second piece I mentioned can be seen at
Your Blue enameled beaded necklace won’t open in a new page. Your
Necklaces are absolutely beautiful!! I have forwarded your necklace
site to my Sister, Julia Gunnells, to post on one of her sites. I
hope it brings you some business.