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I have a terrible memory. There's a reason I write things down, because if I don't and I see a moth, the thought is gone for good.

After a bead show I come home with a truckload of things that caught my eye, and I spend a long time finding homes for all my new toys. Naturally after a week I haven't the slightest clue what I bought and finding them afresh is like an Easter egg hunt.

Months after one particular show I found three strands of mixed-color sapphires. The mineral sapphire comes in a huge variety of colors. It's called sapphire in all variations except dark pink and red, which is ruby, so this necklace technically contains both.

The pendant was the first thing I made. With such tiny gemstones, I love doing tiny wraps and clustering them on jump rings. The basis of the pendant is a little bit of chain maille, in a simple weave I've seen referred to as boa chain.

I wrapped all the colorful sapphires and grouped them by color, the linked them onto the out rings of the weave the create the bands of color.

Finishing the pendant with a briolette seemed right, but I was unhappy about the idea of introducing a new gem. Finally I found a dark blue sapphire drop leftover from these earrings and attached it to the base.

Next I looked at options for the necklace part. A plain chain looked nice, but the pendant looked a little luxurious against just the silver.

I had a whole lot of the clear sapphire left over, since I didn't want them in the layered pendant. I thought about wire wrapping them, but decided the softer finish of knotting them on silk would be much nicer.

Knotting such small gems is not easy - a tiny, even knot between each one means lots of hours and eye strain, but it turned out perfectly. It's a single strand on silk, finished with a delicate silver box clasp. See the Multi-Colored Sapphire Necklace here.