How To Make Necklaces With Heart Pendants

Making a necklace with a heart pendant is a simple and enjoyable jewelry making project. 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 JoAnn'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 r 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 hoped 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 meeting anyone who was marriage minded, or at least not towards me. After I learned I would rather be single than have a relationship that such reached a casual dead end. 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 art and not the unrealistic goals I once had about walking down the aisle. Besides, after you see people around you getting divorced and remarried, you realize sometimes people just get married to do it. Just because you are single does not mean you are unloved. You can love yourself first, and foremost.

The song Here I Go Again by Whitesnake truly represents how I often feel and this song just 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 I am choosing not to date? 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 relinquished so much in my past relationships I just did not want to compromise anymore. People say compromise is essential in a relationship, but I have met people who have these really good relationships where that word does not even come into the equation. So if I ever did find someone I want it to work naturally, not be something I have work as assiduously. The last guy I dated kept suggesting I should do numerous things differently, but I decided I will certainly not be changing just to garner his approval. I do not want a man to change for me either, and I think romance will happen when to people click naturally.

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 shimmery and sparkly in the sun. Making necklaces 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 beautiful 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 during Halloween. 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 an expensive 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 buy 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.