Necklace for a Friend

Part of what I love about going to the American Library Association's conferences every year is seeing friends both old and new.  My group of friends from grad school always gets together for dinner and catching up at least one night during the trip.  Now that I've been making jewelry for a while, my girlfriends will bring me things that need fixing or reworking and sometimes beads or findings as gifts.  It's kind of fun to be considered something of an expert on something!

When I was in Chicago for the Annual Conference, my friend Amy B. entrusted me with a necklace that she had just bought herself for her birthday.  It was a lovely carved jade dragon pendant but she didn't like the cord that it was on.  I was excited to try my hand at turning this pretty pendant into a necklace that I hope Amy will love wearing for years to come.  Here is where it started... I darkened the picture a bit so you could see the dragon better.

I immediately knew part of what I wanted use in the design.  I've had some little carved jadeite flower beads in my stash for ages and I thought that they would be a great compliment to the pendant.  Some pale, rectangular aquamarine beads also made their way into the design along with Vintaj natural brass chain, beads, and findings.  

I wanted to keep things relatively simple and symmetrical to keep the focus on that gorgeous pendant.  Here is the finished product... my fingers are crossed that Amy loves what I've come up with!

I also whipped up some little earrings to go with the necklace to make it a complete set.