Going Cluster Crazy

Clusters of glass, quartz, gemstones, etc. have become almost ubiquitous amongst the community of wire jewelry artisans.

But I have been bucking the trend. Mainly because I know full well just how tedious it is to make wrapped loops on dozens or even hundreds of tiny individual little beads so they can be crammed together onto a chain, at the top of a bigger focal pendant, or interlaced with each other to form their own cluster chain.

But not only have I succumbed, I may have taken the cluster to new depths of insanity...

I have used 6 dozen headpins where the heads of the head pins have either dragon flies, stars, suns or flower shapes themselves.

On each headpin I placed a single 2-3mm micro faceted roundel. I used bright orange carnelian, green onyx, deep purple amethyst, yellow tourmaline, and pink tourmaline.

I then strung all of them at random onto a single length of 18 gauge sterling wire, I'd previously made into a u shape and hammered to flatten and work harden it.

Each end of the u has been spiraled, and a double wrapped loop added through the center hole of each spiral. The piece is finished with doubled orange ribbon that matches the carnelian.

The ribbon itself is securely bound with hand made sterling silver hugs and clasped with a hand made, hand shaped, and hand forged s-clasp.

Lady Mockingbird
Mockingbird Lane Creations