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Making Wire Jewelry with Crystals
by Dale Armstrong
Question:

I was wondering if the insides of a geode can be used in jewelry or will the crystals just crumble apart? Thanks!

-Cindy in Lake Station, Indiana
Instructions
Answer:

Well Cindy, using the crystal formations inside a geode to make jewelry with really depends on the crystals. (Of course, another way to use these crystals is as cut druzy cabochons.)
Dale Armstrong's Making Wire Jewelry with Crystals - , Stones, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Design, , Geodes
Most quartz crystals are pretty stable (including amethyst, citrine, etc) and small botryoidal formations (like azurite, malachite and chrysocolla) are good because even though they are a softer material they are rounded and compact.
When we see lovely, feathery crystals of more delicate minerals such as the zeolite natrolite, in my opinion specimens such as these are way too fragile to consider using in jewelry making of any type!
Dale Armstrong's Making Wire Jewelry with Crystals - , Stones, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Design, , Azurite
One suggestion, with regards to how to make crystal clusters into wire jewelry, is to use a minimal amount of wire so the focus remains on the featured material. In the picture here, you see a silver-dollar sized amethyst crystal cluster made into a pendant I titled Vineyard Harvest. The cluster reminded me of grapes, so I mixed half hard and dead soft 20-gauge square wire for the simple frame (carefully entwining the softer wire between crystals) and accented it with Bali silver leaf beads. (The modified frame is based on my Anything Pendant Harness.)
Of course, you also should take into consideration the back of the crystal cluster, the geode matrix. If it is very rough you may want to make a woven, open mat-style frame from round or square wire for the back first (or crochet the backing) and then attach the cluster as described above.

Answer contributed by Dale "Cougar" Armstrong
Dale Armstrong's Making Wire Jewelry with Crystals - , Stones, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Design, , Crystal necklace

Materials

Druzy One of a Kind Cabochons
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Wire
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Tools

Chain Nose Wire Plier
G2-508
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3 Step Square Pliers
G2-505
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Flat Nose Wire Plier
G2-506
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Round Nose Wire Plier
G2-507
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C.H.P Milano Italian Flush Cutter, 5 1/2 Inches
PLR-487.00
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6 Step Barrel Plier - Pack of 1
G2-503
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  • Category: Stones
  • Technique(s): Wrapping, Design, General Education

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