Gemstone Necklaces: the journey

handmade necklaces, macrame, macrame necklaces, Necklaces, unique macrame 5 Minutes

I mention in the “About me” section that I make gemstone necklaces.

Below are a small selection of the gemstones necklaces I have made so far (more to come):

Lapis Lazuli – the stone of wisdom and truth. Derived from the Latin: lapis = stone, lazuli = blue.

Lapis Lazuli: I was first inspired to start this whole necklace-making attempt when I watched a recent show called A Discovery of Witches, based on the book by Deborah Harkness which I later read. In the TV series and in real life, the actress Teresa Palmer has a gorgeous Lapis necklace which has been wrapped in macramé style. I thought about ordering one from the people who made the necklace for her, but they didn’t have it in the same style or using a Lapis stone at the time, and I wanted a similar one. Teresa’s necklace was, unsurprisingly, a one-off (see below).

The necklace made for Teresa Palmer for A Discovery of Witches,
made by _tinker_shop who can be found on Instagram.

So I googled gemstone cabochons and found a wonderful website where they sold some Lapis stones. They were roughly the right size so I ordered a few to choose from, and then I set about learning how to make macramé stone wrappings and cords. I ordered some string from Amazon, and I got to work on YouTube watching lots of different macramé tutorials until I had a good idea of the style I wanted. I then leapt right in and made my first necklace (below).

My first attempt at the necklace. I didn’t know how to make the cord look similar, but the general idea was the same and it looked nice enough (to me).

It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough for a first attempt. I then made several more in similar style:

Labradorite macramé necklace. This stone was re-purposed later and made into a different necklace. To see it, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Rainbow moonstone cabochon macramé necklace. This is also the same as the photo on my website home page, which was the product photo from the website where I bought the cabochon. (Also since remade, shown in my post titled “Remaking a necklace”).

After a while, I started branching out with my style of wrapping the stones, experimenting with different, looser methods:

Trying a different style of wrapping: Labradorite x2 and Blue Opal

Soon I had lots of different necklaces, with the number still growing:

From the left: Labradorite, Blue Opal, Rainbow Moonstone, Labradorite, Wave Dolomite, Lapis Lazuli, Wave Dolomite. As time went on, all of these stones were remade into what I saw as better necklaces, as my technique improved over time.

Finally, I felt competent enough to attempt to make another Lapis Lazuli necklace which I hoped would look more similar to my inspiration (pictured below), and more closely resemble the style in which it was made. I think I succeeded:

The original inspiration…
… my final creation! I know it doesn’t look the exact same, but it’s similar enough for me. It’s unique, handmade, beautiful and something which I created myself! I love it!

More recent similar posts:

So the lesson here: try to do things yourself! I didn’t see why if someone else had learnt how to make it, why I shouldn’t try to hand-make it myself. As a result, I discovered I was good at it (or at least competent at the time – 2 years later I can say that I am good with more confidence!), and I had a really fun Christmas holiday making all the necklaces shown above plus many more. I created a hobby! It gave me something to do over the holidays. I gave 3 away as presents because other people loved them too, and I think that I might start selling them if I can (UPDATE: I did – see my Instagram account at instagram.com/gemstone_macrame/ where I currently do all my sales and commission work). I certainly have enough stones to get along with (there’s so many more that aren’t shown here). And I’ve just ordered another batch of stones to get busy with… yay!! If you’re interested, I’d love to make you something as well!

This labradorite drop-cut cabochon necklace was made as a gift for a dear friend on Christmas Day, while she watched the process I went through to transform it for her. This is one of my favourites that I have made so far, as the stone was so beautiful and enjoyable to work with. It had previously been wrapped in a different string, but when I made the decision to make it with a lighter string and different style, somehow it ended up looking even more beautiful. (A year and a half later, I remade it once I had become more proficient, but I kept it looking the same style and used the same string).
This labradorite cabochon necklace was given to my friend for her birthday. She saw it after I had made it and loved it so much I just had to give it to her. She was so happy, and I felt so glad that she appreciated it. She shares my love of crystals and pretty things. (Also since remade

All of the cabochons which I used to make the necklaces were purchased from gemstonecabochon.com and I plan to continue ordering from them. They handle the orders well, are an excellent/fair price depending, and the photos are an accurate representation of what you’re getting. 100% would recommend.

Update: the two I made my friends and family in the photos just above here I remade! One year later and I felt I could massively improve! I kept them the same way looks wise but made them more durable and made sure they wouldn’t change how they looked over time. It was the worst thing ever seeing them after months and realising “oh no, these ones I made right at the start aren’t made to my best ability”! But I fixed it, and they’re happy. Thankfully the ones I sold for real are better quality because I spent ages making sure they would last well. Always improving and learning.

This post on this page was previously called sharedthoughtsonline.home.blog/something-different https://home.blog/2019/01/15/something-different/ (FYI these links will no longer work as I have changed the domain name of this website). Pretty cool though: it was the top web search on Google for “Teresa Palmer necklace gemstone” and the eighth result for “A Discovery of Witches necklace gemstone” – with top images for both showing up on the Google Images section. Every fan’s dream! No idea how that happened, but hopefully I’ll find a way to redirect the expired links back here!

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Published by Gemstone Macramé

My name is Lizzie. I craft in macramé style, have a small business making jewellery and other trinkets, and I enjoy being creative in as many forms as I can. My business is called Gemstone Macramé, also active on Instagram and Facebook. https://wordpress.com/view/gemstonemacrame.home.blog https://www.instagram.com/gemstone_macrame/ https://www.facebook.com/gemstone.macrame

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