The polished agate pendant I used in this necklace was my favorite find from Beads, Etc. in South Lake Tahoe, California last November. I was concerned because the hole in the pendant is quite small for a kumihimo necklace, but I couldn’t leave the store without it. I love the way the artist allowed the crystalline part of the structure to stay in the lower corner, contrasted with the deep black of the rest of the piece. The pendant begged for a simple braid with beads to pick up the deep fuschia in the stone.
I chose a spiral structure in plain black rayon to allow the focus to remain on the pendant itself. (For more information on how this type of spiral braid is constructed, see the instructions for the Spiral Snake Necklace I did last November.) This time I chose to use sixteen 70g tama for the float elements instead of twelve that I used for the Snake Necklace. Again I used four 100g tama to carry the tie-down elements in order to provide the increased tension necessary for a well-formed spiral braid. The tie-down elements were one-half the size of the float elements (and twice as long to account for the increased take-up for those elements), and each of the four carried a single strand of C-Lon to carry beads. I used a counterweight of 20 ounces (567g).
I made several attempts to drop 6/0 or 11/0 glass beads on the tie-down elements, but I was unhappy with the inconsistency of the bead placement. In the end, I left all beads off during the first half of the braiding process. When I had completed enough of the spiral structure for the first half of the necklace, I stabilized the braid with the chopstick and removed the strands of C-Lon from the tie-down elements. I passed all four of the C-Lon strands through eighteen 11/0 TOHO glass beads, then threaded the beaded length through the small hole in the pendant. I returned the C-Lon strands to the four 100g tama and continued to braid the spiral structure until I matched the length of the first half of the necklace. In this way, there are four very strong pieces of C-Lon to support the weight of the stone pendant and stand up to whatever abrasion may occur within the glass beads.
The Imposter Rayon in color #20 Black and the end caps are from Braidershand, the magnetic clasp is from Toho Shoji Crafts & Parts in New York, and the split jump rings are from Gifts of Avalon. After spending the majority of January closely supervising tradesmen who were working on an exterior renovation of my home, I am thrilled to be able to get back into the studio to braid!
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