Description
About the Trinity Beads and Rivoli Necklace
This is one of my first experiments with Trinity beads. I designed this project as part of my work with the Beadsmith Inspiration Squad. Now, it uses a combination of shaped seed beads. But they are all in fairly small quantities so you don’t have to invest in too many packets!
I had some odd coloured Swarovski Rivolis left over from other projects, so I decided to mix them all up. Similarly, I had ended up with Trinity beads in lots of colours, adding to the multi-colour idea I had for this piece.
I decided to loosely match the colours of the Trinity beads with the colouring in the Rivolis. But I also wanted to draw everything together to a harmonious whole. So, I used a single colour of Superduos and Crescent beads to do this.
Finally, I added a complementary colour of Firepolish beads and then picked this up with the necklace chain.
Since my beadstash included some Dobble beads in the right shade, I elected to use these to make a very quick chain. They are large, round two-holed beads, so perfect for just stringing. You end up with two strings through each bead which makes for a very secure chain.
I finished the whole piece with one of my trade-mark beaded clasps.
Tips
If you want to save a bit of money, then you can substitute my chain for a beaded rope of your choice, using seed beads. Whichever chain you decide, you can always use a shop-bought clasp instead of beading one.
If you opt to make the beaded clasp, then you will be working in Peyote stitch for that part. For the rest of the necklace you will just string beads. Using the multi-hole structure of the Trinity, Superduo, Crescent and Tile beads, you can create a complex-looking motif that is actually really, really quick and easy to make.
You do not need a great deal of beading experience for this project, but you may find it helpful if you have worked with multi-holed beads before. You will soon see, the Trinity beads allow you to create a beaded casing for a Rivoli (Cabochon) in no time at all. So there is no messing around with tricky thread paths – just fast results.
If you find this idea intriguing, then I also experimented with it in another context when I made my Christmas bow decoration, which you can find here.
