Tartan necklaces? It really CAN be done!

My latest challenge: tartan jewellery for a wedding themed round a very unusual tartan - 'muted' or 'weathered' MacKenzie, which is a lovely soft olivey green and grey-blue with thin stripes of red and white.

Initially, the bride asked me to create a wrist-cuff using blocks of just those basic colours in Swarovski crystals.  It wasn't successful.  Although there are only half a dozen thread colours, as they inter-weave with each other, they produce more colours.

Eventually I selected some 20 shades, around half of them AB to add to the 'texture', and including some translucent ones.

Woven into a firm band, exactly matching the rhythm and weave of the tartan: the finished necklace forming a pointed vee at the centre front.  It was lovely, but - frankly - still didn't look like tartan.

So, we abandoned the attempt at matching the actual weave of the tartan and, instead, concentrated on the colours.  I went back to my analysis of the cloth sample and worked out what percentage of each colour was needed and threaded them more or less randomly.  As the strands were assembled, it became apparent that the crystals were in fact too bright: in the final design, the irridescent clear rocaille were replaced by matte gunmetal grey ones.

To give the bridesmaids more wearing options after the Big Day, the strands were assembled as one- three- and five-strand groups, each attached to a ring connector with a tiny lobster catch so that the girls can choose any permutation of groups and so wear anything between one and nine strands at a time.

The girls each wore two four-strand elasticated bracelets rather than one very wide cuff to increase daytime wearability after the Big Day.

The end result?  A delighted bride and bridesmaids, and some unique and very wearable jewellery.

Price guide: £250 for a long (50cm) 9-strand necklace and two four-strand bracelets, including all colour research and sourcing to match any chosen tartan.