I’m so delighted to share with you the birthstone necklace I made for my mom for Mother’s Day.
I’m equally happy to be sharing this project as a part of the Handmade Mother’s Day Series organized by my friend Kelly at Live. Laugh. Rowe. Head on over to view the save the date page to see links for who else is contributing and get caught up on the past few projects!
Yesterday, Taylor at Taylor Made shared a fun Recipe Oven Mitt, check it out after reading my story below (of course)!
Back to my necklace. Lets just say that I don’t do well with small crafts. I think the idea of making a necklace for my mom for mother’s day sounds great until I sit down with all the supplies and realize…I’ve never made a necklace before. I had this idea to include the birthstones of all of her grandchildren in a locket type enclosure. I have a similar necklace (that I bought at a store) and looked far and wide (online and in stores) to find something similar with no results.
At my local Joann’s, I stumbled upon this vile type situation that I thought would be the best replacement.
There was a nice lady there helping me figure out all the tools and pieces I’d need to complete my project. I realized once again that I was in over my head, but I enjoy a good challenge.
I decided not to buy the tools because I figured I probably knew someone would have them, and I’d already decided I didn’t want to make another piece of jewelry again–it’s an expensive hobby!
After a few texts to friends, I found someone I could borrow tools from…and another friend who had an array of beads she was willing to offer up to me.
My big problem with the birthstone situation was:
- I couldn’t find stones at my local stores, just beads
- The beads were either too big for the vile, or too small
- My mom’s 12 grandchildren bead colors didn’t fit right in the vile
I attempted to grab microscopic specs of sand (uber mini beads) to fill the vile and found I’d have to put a million inside for it to be noticeable. With the help of my friend Margaret, we decided to use the bigger beads, but for months like June and May that my mom has 3 grand-kids each in those months, to just use one bead to represent all 3 in one. Maybe it’s a stretch, but it’s what we did.
We capped off the bottom with a sweet little angel charm, since my mom loves angels. I figured this would be a good gift for her to take with her to Ghana for the next 3 years. 
Sorry I don’t have a great step by step tutorial, but I’m sure there are lots online! The chain was simply attached to the top, and the angel was attaching with a wire wrapping technique.
Make sure you head on over to Making Home Base tomorrow to see what Chelsea is whipping up for the Handmade Mother’s Day series.
