Lovely Lapis Lazuli

Tonight I worked on a necklace using 21 gauge dead soft gold filled wire (the label says 12/20 so I'm not sure what that means in terms of the karat), 3mm and 6mm 14k gold filled beads, 4mm and 6mm lapis lazuli beads (really nice, rich blue but not many pyrite flecks, unfortunately), and some vermeil beads that look like they're made from tiny gold coils. I think next time I'm going to get the half hard wire, though, I'm a bit worried about the fragility of the loops.

I've been working very carefully in cutting of the wire to make the looped links, eliminating as much wastage as possible. So far I've have been very successful. I have a small (5 ft) coil of the wire and I put the beads on the wire coil, bend the first loop length and make the loop, move the beads up to the loop and bend and measure for the second loop, then I cut it from the coil. I'm very happy with that technique. I'll have to figure out how to do that with my sterling wire which is on a much larger coil. One thing I really want now is a "cup burr" tool to round off and dull the sharp end rather than having to snip it. So I added it to my Amazon wish list and maybe the hubby will see it and get it for me.

I haven't quite figured out how I might sell it at the price point necessary for any kind of reasonable profit for my effort and the cost of materials (for example, those vermeil beads cost $1.25 each and I'm going to end up using at least 8 or 10 of them plus about $10 in gold filled beads - haven't figured out the per bead cost of the lapis or the per inch cost of the wire), so it might end up in my jewelry box.

No picture tonight - I've finished 13" - will post a pic when I finish it.