DIY Golden Link Necklace with Jesse James Beads

I think that to excel at any craft you have to constantly try to push yourself out of your comfort zone to try new things. There are certain types of beads and designs I always gravitate to. If I ALWAYS gravitate to those same designs and beads though I would have nothing to blog about!  This project I'm sharing today was definitely a nice little push out of my comfort zone that still looks very much like "me" but made me work a little harder to think how I wanted it all to come together!

Today I'm sharing my:

DIY Golden Link Necklace

This necklace is made entirely out of Jesse James Beads with Cousin chain and findings.  I was able to pick up some strands of Jesse James Beads this year at Bead Fest Philly, aren't they SO pretty???

They are so different from any beads I normally work with so it was fun to give my design skills a challenge :) I basically cut apart all of the gold color strands I got and fiddled around with a couple different patterns until I came up with a dangled bib style necklace:

Then I set to work turning it into a necklace! For each dangle I strung the bottom bead onto a head pin and the next two beads onto eye pins.

Bend the wire back 90 degrees directly above each bead with needle nose pliers

Trim off all but about a half of an inch of the pin using wire cutters

Grab the tail with round nose pliers and bend into a simple loop

Attach this loop to the eye pin with the next bead on it, then repeat the steps to create another simple loop and end with the last bead in the chain.

Repeat this process for all of the dangles.  Next, use the same technique to create a strand of small round beads with two large crystals on the end:

Take apart the center of the chain using pliers and attach the top loop of the bead at the top of the center dangle to the eye pins on either side.

The necklace should lay like so when done:

Repeat this process for the rest of the dangles, spacing them out along the chain of beads.

Next attach a piece of chain to the eye pin on either side of the end crystal beads using a jump ring.

Lastly, attach a lobster claw clasp and jump ring to the ends of the chain using two small jump rings and needle nose pliers. 

 

And then the necklace is done!

The bead strands I picked up all had so much variety that I was forced to use so many more beads types in this necklace than I normally would.  But I really really like how well they still all incorporate so well in the finished project!!

There's such a pretty golden glow about this necklace, don't you think? I still have 7 more strands to use for another project, here's to giving myself another challenge!!