A Charming Choke Chain

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  Step 1

  If you want colorful charms to match your beads and confetti, you can start with charms that match the metal tone of your other hardware and just paint them with an appropriate nail polish. This gives them a great enameled look.
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  The polish I used was Sinful Colors brand in Forget Now (transparent, shimmery hot pink). Two coats got a good color that still showed the detail on the charms.

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  Step 2

  THIS STEP SHOULD ONLY BE EXECUTED BY RESPONSIBLE ADULTS AND WITH CAUTION.
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  Fold up an old rag or a paper towel until it's thick. You'll use this as a cushion for poking the holes in your confetti pieces.
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  Put a confetti piece on the folded towel.
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  Take your sewing needle and heat the tip with the candle (holding it directly in the flame) until it's very hot (but not until the whole needle is so hot you can't hold it).
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  Poke the hot needle through the center of the confetti. It should make a neat hole.
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  If you're struggling to get the needle through the confetti, it's not hot enough. Either heat it longer or poke the hole faster, before the needle has a chance to cool.

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  Step 3

  Take a head pin and slide a piece of pierced confetti to the end. Put a seed bead on top of it.
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  Trim the head pin with your wire cutters, leaving enough wire for a small loop.
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  Using your round-nose jewelry pliers, bend the extra wire all the way back just above the bead, then bend it back in the opposite direction, forming a closed loop.
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  Make four of these dangles.

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  Step 4

  Using the extra wire from a head pin, bend one end into a loop the same way as the loop was formed on the dangles.
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  Thread one bead, then one piece of confetti, and then another bead onto the wire.
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  Trim the wire, again leaving enough for a small loop, and make another loop at this end.
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  Make four of these spacers.

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  Step 5

  Measure out a piece of chain long enough that it can wrap all the way around your head, and a little extra, but not too much unless you want your necklace getting friendly with your navel. (The finished necklace has to go over your head.) Cut the chain to this length.
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  REMINDER: DO NOT USE HEAVY CHAIN. For the wearer's safety, the chain must break easily in case of emergency.
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  Add a large jump ring to each end with your pliers. Close the one you want at your neck, don't close the one on the other end that will hold the charms.

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  Step 6

  Measure out seven lengths of chain to your taste. The longest of mine was about four inches.
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  I used two different kinds of chain to add some texture. They're about the same size and color, but the way they're linked is different.
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  Put each charm on a length of chain with pliers and a small jump ring, separating the chain at intervals of your choosing to add the spacers you made before. As you can see, I spaced the charms evenly from one another and ordered them from largest/longest to smallest/shortest.
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  Put each of the dangles you made on a length of chain, too. I checked these against the spacers, so that the spacers and dangles would be evenly dispersed when they hung together.

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  Step 7

  Put all the dangles on the large jump ring you didn't close on the end of your long chain.
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  I put them on from largest charm to smallest, with a confetti dangle on each end and in between each charm dangle.
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  Close the large jump ring, and you're finished!

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  Step 8

  If you're a little confused on how to wear the necklace, here's how it works.
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  Hold the large jump ring on the end with one hand, horizontal to the floor, and with the other, hold the length of the chain above it. From the end attached to the jump ring, drop the chain down through the jump ring.
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  It should form a loop of chain that's closed by the jump ring, as pictured.
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  Pull the loop of chain all the way open and slip it over your head, positioning the jump ring at the front of your neck, then let it go. It should self-adjust to your neck.

Comments

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Vermin Jerky · San Diego, California, US · 22 projects 5th December 2011

Thanks, Chelsea. If you do make your own, I hope you'll share your version here on CO+K.

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Chelsea W. · Toronto, Ontario, CA 5th December 2011

This is really cute, I just might have to make one!

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