The Strega necklace...

I made another necklace tonight. I was dying to use some of my new dragon veins beads. Then I remembered that Mark once said I should make something really gothic, very, very dark. Dragon veins are ideal for that kind of thing due to their variety of colours and a very peculiar texture that really resembles a reptile's skin. Or indeed the veins of some magical beast.

I decided to call it Strega (which means "Witch", in Italian). I also had in mind some books by Carlo Ginzburg, Italian historian, notably the brilliant "Ecstasies. Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath", which I read years ago and enjoyed a lot. I was thinking about revisiting it perhaps. All related to witches and gothic, magical stuff, so there you go.

This is Strega then:


I have used:

- 14 bat wings;
- 7 frog nails;
- The tongue of a basilisk;
... oooops, not really!

Seriously now. This is what I REALLY used (easier to find than the above):

- One purple dragon vein agate focal bead, disc-shaped and very pretty;
- Several Swarovski bicones and two small pendants (also Swarovski);
- Four round dragon veins beads also purple;
- Four big dichroic glass beads;
- Two black onyx round beads;
- Two Czech Fire faceted beads;
- Swarovski crystal pearls of different sizes;
- Twenty small obsidian beads insterspaced with silver-plated crimps;
- Some very few silver-plated balls;
- Tibetan silver clasp (my favourite kind).

Some close-ups:


On the left, we can see the dragon veins focal bead. The "veins" are very strong, very marked. Above, a little detail of the obsidian beads and seilver crimps. On the right, we have one of the dragon veins beads and one of the dichroic ones, as well as some Swarovski black pearls and amethyst bicones.


On the 1st picture a detail of the Swarovski bicones and pearls, and obsidian beads. On the 2nd one, the clasp, a S-hook in Tibetan silver. They are very secure and look quite nice.