The Koyo necklace...

As Hanami (viewing of the cherry blossoms) is for Spring, so is Koyo ("colourful leaves") for Autumn. Viewing of the Autumn colourful leaves, is what the name means.

Then, I made my Koyo necklace today, inspired by this seasonal ritual. Main colours are reds, golds, maple shades. It is quite heavy due to the amount of gemstones I decided to mix here:

For Koyo, I have used:

- One Murano focal bead with gold foil;
- Several antique gold plated bead caps and small beads;
- Six red jade beads;
- Four fire agate orange beads;
- Four beige/brown jade beads;
- Two orange turquoise beads (probably man-dyed);
- 2 faceted rubies;
- Fourteen goldstone beads (also called aventurine or sandstone);
- Golden crimps in-between the goldstones;
- Two heart-shaped Chinese lampwork beads;
- Czech fire faceted crystal beads and AB (Aurora Borealis) bicones;
- One of my favourite clasps, a copper leaf.

Some close-ups...


The 1st picture shows the Murano focal bead in detail, with gold foil and a red rose swirl. The 2nd one shows some of the gold-plated spacers, some Czech Fire faceted beads and one dark red ruby surrounded by two bead caps in the shape of a leaf (or flower). I tried to vary the bead caps for different stones in the necklace, also to represent the variety of trees and leafs you can find in a single forest. They also look a bit like fallen leaves, due to their antique gold, copper hues. And, on the 3rd picture, you can see one of the red jade beads followed by a fire agate deep orange one. Other types of bead caps are also visible here.


On the 1st picture, you have a detail of the nice goldstone beads. Their lovely red brick colour derives from the amounts of mica and hematite present in their composition. They are insterspaced with tiny gold crimps, as I said before, and which are visible here. The 2nd picture shows one of the Czech AB beads, one red jade bead at the top, and further down, another fire agate bead. The 3rd one shows the copper leaf clasp.

A different view of the necklace here...

Slung over a screen,
a dress of silk and gauze.
The autumn wind.

Taniguchi Busan (1716-1784)