Bridgerton necklace advice

[J.lee]

This necklace caught my eye while watching season 1. I want to try and make it and need some advice. I tend to gravitate towards long necklaces. I think maybe it’s because my neck is short and on the thicker side . So my questions are:

1. 18” or 30”+ do you think this will look better as a shorter or longer necklace?
2. What size beads? 2mm smallest, then 4 & 6mm?
3. What types of beads? Should I stick to round or semi round or do you think rice pearls would be fun?

I appreciate everyone’s advice. Thanks in advance

 

[jshepherd]

This is a fun piece! It looks like a swag style.

The piece on the bust looks like a choker, maybe 14-16 inches - short to frame the collarbone. This works because the dipping strands (swags) need some tension form the main strand to hang nicely. 18 inches would work too, but if you go with 30, you're probably going to loose a lot of the swag effect.

I think going smallest on the swags, maybe 2 mm. This is also where you could use rice pearls instead of rounds or semi-rounds. The main strand would look good just slightly larger, maybe in the 3-3.5 mm range, and the big separator stations around 6 to 7.

 

[BWeaves]

I have a couple of 30" necklaces with a similar look, but the small pearls are all the same length between the larger pearls, so there's not a swag effect. One necklace has rice krispie pearls between the larger lapis beads. The other necklace has teeny tiny keshi between graduated pearls. As you can see, the necklace style works with a variety of different sizes of pearls and necklace lengths.

 

[J.lee]

thank you very much. I googled swag style pearl necklace. I can now see the slight swag effect.

Bweaves Tyvm for the photos. Do you have any photos wearing both necklaces?

I do like both the shorter and longer versions.

 

[BWeaves]

thank you very much. I googled swag style pearl necklace. I can now see the slight swag effect.

Bweaves Tyvm for the photos. Do you have any photos wearing both necklaces?

I do like both the shorter and longer versions.

I'll try to get photos for you tomorrow.

 

[BWeaves]

thank you very much. I googled swag style pearl necklace. I can now see the slight swag effect.

Bweaves Tyvm for the photos. Do you have any photos wearing both necklaces?

I do like both the shorter and longer versions.

Here you go! The Rice Krispie and lapis necklace has no clasp, so I can position the big beads anywhere. I like to purposely wear them asymmetrically because they're going to shift around anyway. The blue baroque akoya necklace has a clasp and tends to stay centered.

 

[ifutzwithfire]

Ha- Okay, I wasn’t the only one going frame by frame on that! OP, you’ve got some great advice here already but I also wanted to say that once you have the basic structure figured out, this is a great style to do some iterating and exploring with. For me that often means spreading out a ton of different beads of all shapes and sizes and types, getting a spool of cheap sewing thread or fishing line, and just stringing up sets of various combinations to see what makes my heart skip a beat. There are so many ways to change up the look, from using sharply angular geometric faceted beads, to contrasting matte vs pearl vs crystal… you can keep it monochromatic and vary sizes/shapes, or pick a single shape and vary sizes and colors. In a word… PLAY!

 

[A Breaker]

I love Jeremy's advice (He might have done pearl design a time or two...!) When he said it, I noticed is that there is 1 of the swag strands that is shorter.. Jeremy called it the main strand...that allows the other 2 swaggy strands to hang down. Practice string is great. I think this would be so fun!! Post photos of your tries and what you worked out!

 

[J.lee]

I do like the original style I posted and bweaves long style. I haven’t decided yet what I want to try. Those tiny pearls are more expensive than I thought. They sure do add up quick.

 

[A Breaker]

I do like the original style I posted and bweaves long style. I haven’t decided yet what I want to try. Those tiny pearls are more expensive than I thought. They sure do add up quick.

I needed just a few of those tiny pearls.....yes, super expensive! The amount per CM is crazy, because of the size. You might get some seed beads and do a mock-up to decide if you want the tiny ones or would slightly larger or rice pearls make you just as happy? It also gives you a chance to see your amount of patience and/or persistence. I know I lose interest after adding a million tiny beads, so a million a bunch of times, in the long necklace, I would never finish. BWeaves has lots more patience and persistence!

 

[BWeaves]

Oh, I did NOT string my tiny pearl necklaces. I do not have the ability to string those tiny pearls.

When I was on the Japan pearl farm trip in June, at the Japan Pearl Fair, there was a booth with lots of tiny akoya keshi. They were gorgeous. I loved feeling a hank of 100 strands of them in my hand. Silken luciousness. But each strand was over $100 USD, so by the time I would have bought enough to make a necklace, it would have gotten very expensive. And then I would have had to string them. I'd rather string big pearls. Less fuss. But I'm happy to buy someone else's work.