Cat on a Limb: Draped Chain Necklace and Happy 2013!

Happy new year everyone!!

I, for one, am so happy to have 2012 over and done. That year was kind of an overall fail for me. But I've got high hopes and big plans for 2013 which will totally make up for last year. Some of the plans include a more concerted effort and focus for my blog. I'm going to focus more on fashion, with patterns, tutorials, style, jewelry, accessories, etc. It's one of my main areas of interest. I will also continue posts about food and DIY projects as I love those subjects, too, and don't want to give them up. :) So, in practice the blog may not end up being very different, but I do plan on posting more frequently and trying to build something that will offer inspiration and help others be successful in their various projects. And by "they" I really mean you, my wonderful, awesome readers! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit, leave comments, and support me in my creative journey.

My first post of 2013 is a tutorial for making a dramatic draped chain necklace. It was inspired by those long necklaces with large circle links. I've wanted one of those for a while but each necklace I found in stores was so lightweight and seemed that one tug from a small child would result in a broken necklace. So, as often happens with things I would like to buy if they were available, but can't find, I ended up making one myself. Thankfully it ended up being fairly simple.

NOTE: This tutorial requires some basic working knowledge of how to use jump rings and jewelry-making tools. There are tons of great guides out there for the very new beginner, but I just don't take the time to explain every detail here.

I gathered up a few different types and colors of chain. (Minus that one in the middle... my kids made off with it and I completely forgot about it while I was making the necklace. Haha, I guess "out of sight out of mind" works for me sometimes, too.)

I started with the two chains made of large circle links. I removed the extra small links on one end (used to connect more than one length of chain) to even them out.

I laid out the chains to plan the placement, and to make sure they would actually look good together before putting the work in to assemble the necklace. I also took a picture to help me remember how I wanted things to look.

The large circle chains turned out to be several inches too short for the length I wanted, so I added a couple of inches of regular chain on each side, plus a little extra for an extension, using two jump rings for extra reinforcement to help distribute the weight of the rest of the chains. (At least in my theory, haha)

I assembled the closure and added a metal bead dangling at the end of the extension.

For connecting the chains I started with the smaller circle chain and carefully laid it out so it would lay flat when worn, making sure it wasn't twisted at all. I placed the larger circle chain where I wanted it to connect with the longer chain, then attached it with jump rings.

After getting the first two connected, I found working on the necklace with it on my dress form helped.

Instead of having all the chains go completely around the necklace, I ended them, slightly to the back, securing them on the longer circle chain. I attached them all to one of the circles since it is solid, without a break, so it can't pull apart. For each chain I added, I started by attaching it to the solid circle with a jump ring, bringing it around to the solid circle on the other side of the necklace and adjusted it to the length I wanted. Then I opened the chain, removed a link to make it that length, and attached it with a jump ring.

For me, the whole necklace, following the bottom chain, measures 33" with 2" extension. The bottom chain alone measures 26".