2009-02-18

Rosary of stabilized natural turquoise nuggets with Our Lady of Guadalupe centerpiece


Technical Information
This rosary is made with a combination of wire-wrapping and cable-stringing techniques.
Materials:
stabilized turquoise nuggets (53 large nuggets, and 18 chips)
49-strand stainless-steel-&-nylon beading cable
20-gauge silver craft-wire (copper wire coated with nickel-silver alloy (Nickel-silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. It contains no silver.))
silver-lined crystal seed beads.
sterling-silver crimp-tubes and sterling-silver wire-guardians
nickel-silver crucifix
nickel-silver Our Lady of Guadalupe centerpiece

Each Our-Father bead is made of 2 to 4 stabilized turquoise chips, strung on a length of 20-gauge craft wire. The chips are then caged together (wrapped in a spiral made from a second length of wire); and the ends of the stringing wire are then looped and wrapped to capture the caging wire.
Each decade is strung separately, on a separate length of beading cable, the turquoise nuggets separated by seed beads. The ends of the piece of cable are connected to the Our-Father beads or to the centerpiece with wire-guardians and crimp tubes.
The centerpiece and the crucifix are attached to the adjacent Our-Father beads with wrapped wire bows made from 20-gauge craft wire.
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2 comments:

  1. This is Sarah from JSM, next to the Bead Coop! I just wanted to let you know that I think your work is BEAUTIFUL!!! I am going to email you about "hiring" you to make one of these for my mom for her confirmation... keep an eye out for my email!!
    Sarah

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  2. This is a beautiful piece. I love how you have used irregular shaped stones for the Ave beads. It creates a stunning piece of art. =)

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