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Colored Stone Rondelle Necklaces

Fly Girl

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2007
Messages
7,312
Some of you may have seen my unheated tanzanite faceted rondelle necklace. I purchased the rondelles a couple of years ago from Dana at Mastercut Gems and strung up the necklace myself. Since then it has become one of my favorites. I wear it with various pendants. I love the pop of lavender color and the light flashes off the facets you get as you move.

I have always liked to have a separate chain for each of my pendants. However, with the cost of gold going up, I have tried silver and I have tried swapping pendants on the chains. My latest idea is to make more colored stone rondelle necklaces to use as chains for my pendants.

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This hessonite garnet strand was made by T Lee to match the Roger Dery citrine in my T Lee 24kt gold wire woven pendant. (I obscured the center of the pendant to comply with Colored Stone forum rules. 8) ) The color match is amazing, and picks up the citrine beautifully.

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I wanted to change up the hessonite strand at times, so I ordered this Tunduru sapphire strand from Agustus at Eastern Trade Winds in Bali. The strand was strung with synthetic cord and a 14kt yellow gold clasp at T Lee in Minneapolis.

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At the same time, I ordered this orangish-pink sapphire faceted rondelle strand from Agustus. These rondelles are a bit smaller at 3 mm, while the tunduru strand runs 4 to 5 mm.

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I looked for quite a while to find nice tsavorite garnet faceted rondelles. I finally chose these from Vivienwill on eBay. I was very pleased with the green color and the clarity. The necklace was strung at G Allen in Minneapolis on green string with a 14kt rose gold clasp. Rondelles are 2.6 to 4.7 mm and were graded as eye clean.

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Next up are the blue flash moonstone rondelles from Vivenwill. These are graded as eye clean and are 4.5 to 4.7 mm. I have not yet had these strung, but I will soon. Trying to catch some of the blue flash and transparency for you.

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Here is a mandarin spessartite faceted rondelle necklace made from strands purchased from Agustus. Stringing was done by T Lee in Minneapolis. I like this light orange strand with my T Lee aquamarine pendant. It helps to bring out the color in the orange diamond accent at the top of the pendant. The aqua was sourced from Wild Fish Gems.

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Finally, I also have this tourmaline strand from Agustus. I was planning to use the tourmalines as accents in some jewelry, but it is so pretty it may yet get strung up to be a necklace.

I was told by the stringer that my strands were well-drilled and smooth on the inside and were easy to string. I am definitely having fun adding a little more color to my necklaces with these pretty colored stones.

Thanks for coming by and looking! :wavey:

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Wow, Fly Girl, you have a regular library there. They are just lovely -- and a terrific way to wear pendants. I LOVE the tsav one especially, but they're all so unique -- bet you get a lot of compliments on them.

--- Laurie
 
Wow x the transmute, spots and moonstone necklaces are very prey. Love the pendant you have for the spess necklace. Thanks for sharing.
 
Wow love the tanzanite, spess and moonstone necklaces. They are are very pretty. Love the pendant you have for the spess necklace. Thanks for sharing.
 
Great versatility! Have you noticed any wear and tear on the beads since you started wearing a pendant with those from the friction of the bale against the beads?
 
Chrono|1347847369|3269374 said:
Great versatility! Have you noticed any wear and tear on the beads since you started wearing a pendant with those from the friction of the bale against the beads?
Thank you, JewelFreak, wordie89, and Chrono.

There is no noticable wear on the tanzanite necklace, which is my oldest. I was half-expecting the beads in the center to look noticably smaller by now. I just eyeballed it, and I do see a tiny chip in one of the central beads, but I have no idea when it occurred. You can see in the photo that some of the smaller beads were chipped at the beginning. Basically, I just decided that I wouldn't worry about it, since these beads are not exactly precision cut in the first place.

I am seeing more and more of these smaller gemstone beads showing up in various necklace designs. I have never been a fan of larger beads, or obviously fake looking beads. But, these faceted rondelles make colorful and less costly substitutes for gold chains, even though I'm not expecting them to last for decades.
 
Fly Girl, I had to come out of lurkdom to say how much I like the necklaces. Much more interesting to have your pendants on them versus regular chains. And I have always liked your T Lee pieces. One of these days I am going to have her set something for me! I have an untreated yellow sapphire from Gary Braun-maybe that stone would be a candidate.
 
Very pretty, I was thinking the other day I should make another rondelle necklace. I love yours and you have so many great pendants to wear with them.
 
lovely...i'm particularly smitten by the spess [no surprise, right] and moonstone strands. however, it is your aqua pendant that i adore....and i'm betting would look good hanging from several of your rondelle necklaces.
 
You know Flygirl, first off, I love your idea of using the gemstone rondelle strand as the necklace for your pendants. The color combos you have are stunning and I actually can't imagine that your pendants would be shown off to the same advantage with a simple gold chain, but this is coming from someone who is completely biased as I am smitten with almost any kind of beaded gemstones, whether they be briolettes, rondelles, tumbled pebbles,...you get the idea.

I have this huge inventory from when I made and sold beaded gemstone and pearl jewelry. It largely sits around, and every once in a while I take it out to make something for a friend or a little girl who is visiting, and I am reminded just how beautiful the strands are - you name it, I have it and they are this total rainbow of sparkles. Sigh. I know I really should sell them and let them go to a good home where they will be incorporated into a lovely piece such as yours. Sigh.

On another note, are you located in the Bay Area? While I have also purchased from Vivienwill on ebay, largely I buy at gem shows (that is, when I was buying - I really try and avoid them now as I can justify not buying an expensive sapphire or demantoid by allowing myself "just to buy some little gemstone strands..." Hah! Who am I kidding when they can easily cost a few hundred per strand?!!). At these shows, my primary "go to" gemstone dealer, who is so accommodating with good prices is Anil Kumar in case you're in the area.
 
I love your combinations, Flygirl. Such a beautiful way to enhance and make your look unique! I've done bracelets in this way, mostly. For pendants I have always wire-wrapped the rondelles, but this definitely gives me ideas!

minousbijoux|1347904242|3269707 said:
... from when I made and sold beaded gemstone and pearl jewelry.

Wait, you started that thread and haven't posted any pics of your work?!! Show, don't tell! :D

*groan* You're not kidding about the temptation at the gem shows. No matter how much I say, "I won't buy these unless I know I'm going to actually make something," nope, still have unused strands. I always make a point to stop by Anil Kumar's booth too!

...and then there's the time I was looking for apatite beads, and ended up with the sapphire round in my avatar, in the lotus ring. There's a thread on that, titled "I was bad..." :lol:

If you're in the Bay Area, you must have gone to The Bead Shop in Palo Alto? I was so sad when they closed. They were there for twenty years! Damn Facebook offices.
 
Cind11|1347855038|3269445 said:
Fly Girl, I had to come out of lurkdom to say how much I like the necklaces. Much more interesting to have your pendants on them versus regular chains. And I have always liked your T Lee pieces. One of these days I am going to have her set something for me! I have an untreated yellow sapphire from Gary Braun-maybe that stone would be a candidate.
Thank you, Cind11. I know you are a T Lee fan, and I hope you go for your own custom pendant soon. Yes, my T Lee pieces seem to enjoy these colored gemstone necklaces. In fact, T features quite a few colored rondelles necklaces for sale in her shop, so I didn't really come up with the idea on my own. :))
 
Lovinggems|1347878462|3269505 said:
Very pretty, I was thinking the other day I should make another rondelle necklace. I love yours and you have so many great pendants to wear with them.
Thank you, Lovinggems. I hope you post photos of yours. Part of the reason I wanted to show mine was to help spread the word about how pretty they are.
 
movie zombie|1347895687|3269624 said:
lovely...i'm particularly smitten by the spess [no surprise, right] and moonstone strands. however, it is your aqua pendant that i adore....and i'm betting would look good hanging from several of your rondelle necklaces.
Thank you, MZ. The store manager at T's has truly outstanding spess rondelle pieces. She got them years ago when good orange spess was more affordable. But, I think my lighter orange one does look great with the aqua pendant, and I'm going to be wearing this pair a lot this winter. I agree that the spess necklace kicks it up a notch.
 
Thank you, minousbijoux and yanaazul. I'm not from the Bay Area, but I was fortunate to be able to visit last fall. I do try to go to my local gem shows, but I like the quality of these rondelles better than what I was able to find locally.

Minous and yana, please make up a few strands and post them. I'd love to see your work.
 
Flygirl they're such a delight - and yes, the spess looks stunning with the aqua pendant :)) I also love the moonstones and the pinkish sapphires and of course the tanzies that started this binge :bigsmile: A really great idea, they look lovely. Why don't you learn to string them yourself?

minousbijoux wrote:... from when I made and sold beaded gemstone and pearl jewelry.

Yanaazul wrote:....Wait, you started that thread and haven't posted any pics of your work?!! Show, don't tell! :D

Over to that other thread and post pictures please ladies! :bigsmile:
 
Thank you, Starzin.

I did string the tanzanite strand myself during my unemployed period. Fortunately, I'm back to work now, and I have limited time to do these crafty things. I can afford to hire them out, so I do. Prices for stringing were quite reasonable.
 
Ah...there you go then. An all round better deal probably - that you have a job and can afford to have someone else string the pretties. Congratulations :))
 
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