Amber Elegance – Baltic Amber and Freshwater Pearl Wirewrapped Pendant

I found this Baltic amber cabochon at a show I attended recently, and even though I’m not a huge fan of amber, I know lots of people are. Fan or not, I thought this cab was beautiful, and I had to have it! Of course after I bought it I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to make it up into a design until Artbeads.com, a company I had already been buying some of my supplies from, allowed me to choose some gorgeous olive bronze pearls free of charge in exchange for blogging about them. These freshwater pearls are about 9-10 mm, so they’re pretty large. They have a wonderful irregular shape–elegant without being predictable–and the sheen is fantastic, with a bronzy green iridescence that is just amazing. The nacre on all the pearls I received was smooth and flawless, and the color goes surprisingly well with the Baltic amber. I used 12K gold-filled wire to sculpt the wirewrapped frame, and then I used 26 gauge gold-filled wire to “sew” the pearls and citrine beads onto the frame to accentuate the amber cab. To finish the pendant I created the woven bail that I seem to love so much (I do quite a few woven bails on my jewelry). The gold-filled chain is adjustible from about 16 inches to about 18 inches, and I embellished the extender chain with a pearl and citrine dangle.