Turning a geode into a beaded pendant

Technique Tuesday!

On a trip to Arizona, I found some small cut geodes in a gift shop and promptly bought ten, having no clear idea what I was planning to do with them. Looking at them later, I decided to make a freeform beaded setting, which would cover the less-attractive back and leave the cut and polished flat side exposed. Since the first geode I chose to work with was small (the cut face is 1 by 1 ½ inches), I decided to turn it into a pendant. Here are the basic steps that I took to create the beaded pendant shown above. With a few modifications, the freeform beaded setting could be adapted for use with any other small object that you wished to encase ~ a small slab of agate, a found object, etc. The instructions for a simple spiral beaded rope to hang your pendant on are also included.

Step-by-step instructions

Comments

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1456 days ago

Bead & jewelry blogging round-up
[...] Jewelry & Beading What to do with those odd-shaped treasures you pick up on vacation this summer! [...]

By Cyndi L

Thank you Arline! You can use lots of other irregularly shaped treasures too :-)

By abeadlady

That is a great tutorial. Easy to understand. Makes you want to go out and find a geode.

Arline

By Gayla McCord

That’s gorgeous! I made a barrette once from beads – it turned out beautiful – I just never could sit down long enough to do it again.

I do love looking at other people’s work though.

By DoN

Very interesting design, thanks for the detailed explaination.

By sharon mehalof

Awesome!!

By Cyndi L

Thanks Melissa! This method covers all the ugly parts on the back ;-)

By Melissa Lee

What a gorgeous idea – I love the way the geode looks nestled in its peyote casing.