Faceted tear drop briolettes are really pretty shapes to use in jewelry designs.  Check out this easy wire work earrings tutorial by Jocelyn who is also the designer behind Fantasia Elegance. The actual tutorial is done with side drilled briolettes.



But you can also use ordinary top drilled tear drop beads as shown in the picture above. In either case, the wire wrapping used to attach the briolettes also bind the frame together at the top.

The decorative wire wrapped "S" also serves to stop the briolettes from moving too much!



Briolettes were extremely popular with royalty and aristocrats in past centuries.  They were expensive to cut - lots of facets - and there was considerable wastage. But they did catch the light well.

One gorgeous example is the Napoleon Diamond Necklace which is now at the Smithsonian Institute.  Emperor Napoleon commissioned the necklace in 1811 as a gift to his second wife, Marie-Louise on the birth of their son. Napoleon Bonaparte ditched his first love, Josephine, because he needed an heir and she was by then, too old to bear him children. He reportedly said, "I want to marry a womb."  See my past post , Josephine de Beauharnais' Obsession with Jewelry.

Photo by Chip Clark

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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