Making jewelry with heart pendants is fun and easy. As I have shared in many of my hubs I prefer to make my own jewelry, and several of my pieces have included heart pendants. My favorite places to buy affordable heart pendants are at crafting stores such as Jo'Ann's and Michael's. When I first started designing jewelry with heart pendants I simply choose a pretty heart pendant that I placed on a cute chain. However, as time went by I decided to become more creative and place the heart pendants on a necklace with other beads. The great thing about a heart pendant is that it can represent many things. To some people a heart pendant is represents a gift a love to your girlfriend or wife. For others a heart pendant could just be about friendship and caring about others. A few years ago when I was with my ex-boyfriend I thought he really loved me when he bought me a heart pendant. At the time I did not realize he had simply bought this piece of jewelry because the salesperson had recommended it.

When we broke up I still had hope one day I might meet someone and get married. To me the heart pendant actually used to represent the hope for love in my life, but as I dated people for a couple of years I learned along the way I was not meet anyone who was marriage minded, or at least not towards me.  it is a very hard blow being the kind hearted and sincere person that I am, and even having men tell me this, but to then have several of my ex's go on to get engaged and married after they dated me.  After awhile I learned there was something about me men did not desire in a relationship, and you know this has not bothered me at all once I discovered this. Actually the realization of this has been powerful because it allowed me to stop spending precious time meeting people when I knew this was not really going to go anywhere.  Each person has to decide what is good for them, but I do not want to causually date someone for a long time only for the relationship to go nowhere. During the year 2007 I really began to see that dating was wrong for me completely, and that I could define love in my life by being alone. The heart pendant now represents my love of crafting and self-love, and not the unrealistic goals I once had about walking down the aisle.

The song Here I Go Again by Whitesnake truly represents how I often feel and this song spoke to me. No longer would I obsess about getting married or wanting what other people have because maybe this is just something that was not meant to be. Yes this makes me a "drifter meant to walk alone" as described in the lyrics, but maybe I am meant to do many things on my own. Is it so horrible most men who meet me see me as someone that has no relationship potential? Not really. Now I am okay with this because it spares the expense of going on numerous first, and sometimes second dates that lead nowhere. There are others who want a casual thing, but for me that is just way too casual and I have no interest. I used to think well I just need to meet the right one, but I have learned I am just not the right one for marriage. It is not a sad feeling, but I have learned self-love along the way that helps me to accept this fact.

I also started to think about marriage more and more, and I realized I really just wanted "the show" and not the relationship itself. In my mind's eye there were many times I thought I wanted to marry my ex, but I also realized I often spoke my mind and do not like to compromise. Relationships are about compromising, but I got the point that I had relenquished so much in my past relationships I just did not want to anymore. The last guy I was I met that I only went on a couple of dates with was suggesting to me how I should do numerous things differently, but I decided I will certainly not be changing just to win a popularity contest.

I am not saying I will never get married ever, but I really do not see this happening to me in the future. When I started making necklaces with heart pendants I realized these do not have to represent the idealized token of love a boyfriend would give me, but are simple and fun pieces of jewelry I can make myself. With my creativity I can make jewelry out of non-precious materials that are  just as beautiful as the sparkly diamonds and pearls some people wear. I do not have to ask the sales person if a necklace is made out of real 24k gold, or how much the chain will cost because I am over in the crafting aisle picking out affordable crystal beads, acrylic beads, heart pendants, flower pendants, oval pendants, shell pendants, and beading wire. Of course I would love a pearl necklace, especially one made out of Tahitian black pearls, but those are very expensive and crafting beads can look just as shimery and sparkly in the sun. Making nekclaces with heart pendants can be fun without the large price ticket that accompanies a ticket to the local diamond store.

So what if I do not have a diamond engagement ring that cost someone two months income because I can make a beatiful necklace that costs only a few dollars. Once I was at a store in the mall and I saw some pieces of fun jewelry that had fake jewels, and a friend at the time said it was costume jewelry that she would only wear duringHalloween. I said I thought the pieces were cute and it gave me ideas about things I would like to make, and right then and there I could tell she thought I was less sophisticated because I did not have an interest in acquiring expensive jewelry. To me the beautiful jewelry such as the heart pendants I make with my own hands are a work of love because anyone can buy a tricked out necklace, but not everyone can find joy in creating simple jewelry. Here are some of the simple heart pendants that I have incorporated into my simple jewelry pieces.

This large blue pendant is made out of glass, but it looks like it is a blue stone. Many people ask me what type of stone my pendant is made of, and they are surprised when I tell them it is made out of glass. Another thing that shocks people is when I tell them this heart pendant only cost about three dollars when I bought it at Jo'Ann's.

I decided to put this heart pendant on a chain I had lying in my jewelry box, which means this simple piece of jewelry was very affordable. Why buy an expensive heart pendant when you can purchase this affordable and beautiful one instead!

After I bought the large blue pendant I decided to bye two small pendants that were similar. I slipped these onto a chain that I had to add a clasp too, and it is still one of my favorite pieces of jewelry two years after I made this necklace. The turquoise colored heart pendants look great when paired with a white colored shirt.

This heart necklace was made from scratch using beading wire, a clasp, beads, and a beautiful glass heart pendant.  The beads I used were a combination of antique beads I bought at a garage sale as a child, and a few beads I had lying around my house.  Making beautiful heart pendants can be as simple or as intricate as you wish.  One nice thing about heart necklaces made from scratch is how the bead pattern makes this simple necklace much more intricate.