Appletini Mini-Lariat

Back in the spring I purchased the Appletini bead mix from Rings and Things to make a miniature lariat. I say mini here because this is only 3 feet long, lariats are usually at least 4 feet. I did also add in a few seed beads from my stash, along with fiber optic beads and Swarovski crystals. The crystal at the end is one of Swarovski's sew on twists.

For the stringing material I used medium49 strand Soft Flex, two different colors. The light blue is from the Tranquility trio, and I think the light green is from the Serenity. I had used two different trios for this necklace.

Aside from the ends of the necklace I used an alternating design to show off the beading wire. The beads look continuous due to the dual strands, but there is exposed wire with a bead or two floating on it. The 6mm green fiber optic beads hold both strands of wire.

Here is what the whole necklace looks like. The exposed beading wire is visible in the larger version of the photograph (clicking the thumbnail leads to the Flickr photo page).










And a picture of what the ends of the necklace look like. I started with the crystal end, joining the two pieces of beading wire then attaching them to the crystal. From there I beaded the loop and the rest of the necklace. For this pattern I worked on both wires together, alternating which one had a floating bead.