Help me design my rainbow bezel set necklace

[paragon1234]

I'm really getting into making my own jewellery now. I'm trying to make a bezel set rainbow necklace. I bought some 5mm silver bezel settings and a chain. I will cut the chain into segments and connect the bezels in-line on the chain using jump rings.

The stones arrived today and I've been playing around with configurations.

The green peridot is not set because it's too big. I think they sent me the wrong stone. Grr. At least peridot is cheap.

Which layout do you prefer? My husband thinks he doesn't like the first one because some stones will always be hidden behind my hair. I like them all. I just don't like it when chains move round to show the clasp, but I think none of these designs will?

 

[deorwine]

Well, I must say that (3) is the one that made me go "oooooooh" so I vote for that

...but also the nice thing about (1) is that it's changeable! If you feel more yellow one day, more blue the next, you can rotate the necklace around a bit to accommodate that, which I think would also be rather nice.

 

[bludiva]

i like 1 esp if it also works wrapped around your wrist as a bracelet. they all look nice though - which would you wear the most? cool project!

 

[lilmosun]

Its really a personal preference. I like #2 for reasons your husband gave. But my hair is long and typically worn down, so for me, stones towards the back are wasted.

Maybe someone else can speak to whether having stones closer together will reduce flipping.

 

[LemonMoonLex]

I like #3 the best but
#1 comes in a close second!

 

[lovedogs]

I love #1!

 

[JackTrick]

I looooove 2. I think it would look lovely on a low/wide collar.

 

[PreRaphaelite]

2

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

I have a diamond necklace like #2 so I'm partial to that!

 

[CSpan]

This post is so timely! I am having a bezeled necklace done and was too afraid to play with the stones

I really like 2. I argue with myself on 1, like your husband said 2 stones will always be lost but then my chains always slip around so it might be nice to always have color showing no matter where the clasp migrates too. That said I think with the center of gravity towards the middle it will be harder for the clasp to wiggle.

 

[paragon1234]

Thank you all for your feedback. It gave me a lot to consider.

That said I think with the center of gravity towards the middle it will be harder for the clasp to wiggle.

Yes I think with options 2 or 3 the stones will be so heavy that it would always stay centred. I'm leaning towards 2 now because the rainbow effect is a bit lost in 1, especially when they can't all be seen at once. It might look better as a style if the stones were all the same colour or random ones.

I do want a bezel bracelet but I think 5mm stones are too big on my wrist so that will be a different project with 3mm stones.

So I think I know what I'm going to do...

 

[LilAlex]

2 for sure. But I would consider not using the "ROYGBIV" sequence and mixing it up. The pale one on the end looks weak there, imo.

 

[AprilBaby]

#2 for sure!

 

[paragon1234]

2 for sure. But I would consider not using the "ROYGBIV" sequence and mixing it up. The pale one on the end looks weak there, imo.

Yeah that is an amethyst and not as deep a purple as pictured on the vendor website. I have since bought a replacement peridot and amethyst from somewhere else and asked them to make sure the size is correct. I also considered adding a pink stone but do rainbows have pink?

 

[Austina]

All look pretty, but I like 3 because you can see how well the stones compliment each other and really pop together.

 

[dk168]

No. 3 for me as the colours are more concentrated.

DK

 

[voce]

Rainbows don't have pink.

I would prefer 2 myself, and even though I'd prefer 1 as a bracelet, I wear my long hair down and would be concerned some stones might not be visible with 1, as @lilmosun has mentioned.

 

[chrono]

2 or 3 for the reasons your DH mentioned. I gave up on these type of designs because the flipping drove me crazy.

 

[lucida818]

#2 for me definitely but am surprise I quite like #3 too!

 

[KaeKae]

I love this!
It reminds me of a necklace I had made with our family birthstones. Mine are sliders, though, and I now would prefer fixed stations, as you are planning.

I'm going to go the opposite from most posters and vote for #1. On my neck, most necklaces spin, so with #1, you'd always have pretty stones showing.

 

[sydneyatl]

I’ve wanted something like #1 for a long time for myself, so that’s my vote!

 

[paragon1234]

I received a different peridot and darker amethyst yesterday and I have finished making the necklace. Initially I had the jump rings attached to the bezels at 180 degrees (i.e. opposite) to each other but found that they flipped all the time. I moved one jump ring on each bezel to 90 degrees and that changed the weight distribution so gravity keeps them from flipping.

The necklace was 18 inches and on my neck the red and purple were almost vertical. That caused them to flip. I shortened the necklace to 16 inches and now they're more horizontal and resting on my collar bone.

If the green at the bottom was bigger and heavier that would also help the others to stay put.

Overall, if flipping bezels is something you really want to avoid, then weight distribution and length of chain are really important.

I'm quite pleased with the result. I've only recently started making jewellery as a hobby so I haven't got a soldering kit. I will need to solder the jump rings at some point. I got most of the stones from gemselect.com. The replacement peridot and amethyst are from thecuriousgem.co.uk. The ruby is the only lab stone (from clearwatergems on Etsy) in the set. I could have used a garnet I guess. The bezels and chain are from kernowcraft.com. The whole thing cost somewhere between £100 - £150 for materials.

Here's the necklace on my toddler. She really wanted to model it


On my sofa with flash:

 

[voce]

It's beautiful!

Can't believe you made it yourself, it looks professionally done!

 

[paragon1234]

It's beautiful!

Can't believe you made it yourself, it looks professionally done!

Thank you!

 

[lilmosun]

As someone who has been doing some basic jewelry making while stuck at home, your project is inspiring more creativity on my part....something I would totally wear. Nice job!

 

[asscherisme]

Beautiful!

 

[strawrose]

Gorgeous!

 

[tyty333]

Pretty!