DIY Chain and Ribbon Woven Necklaces

A couple of Christmases ago, I received a chain link necklace with crown charm. The necklace really wasn’t to my tastes. It had a Juicy Couture-ish appeal and I got a thing against brands that stick their label on the hinny area of gym pants. I decided to throw away the charm but keep the perfectly good chain. It was a bit boring on its own so I wanted to find a different pendant but it needed to be hefty pendant with a large hole in order to hang in on the chain. Of course I didn’t own such a pendant. Instead, I soon forgot about it and the necklace stayed in my jewelry case gathering dust.

Inspiration

A few weeks ago, Gilt was selling woven ribbon necklaces by Lulu Frost. The chain was interwoven with brightly colored satin ribbon and tied with bows. They were adorable and inspired me to finally do something funky and chic with my chain necklace.

The Supplies

A chain necklace
Colorful ribbon that is at least twice as long as the chain
A bit of tape

Instructions

1) Taper one end of the ribbon with the tape. This will make the ribbon easier to weave in between the links.

2) Take the chain necklace and pull the ribbon through the first link. Make sure to pull enough of the ribbon through. I recommend at least the necklace and a half length of ribbon.

3) Begin weaving the ribbon into a pattern. To do this I straightened out the chain so the first link lies flat, the second link is on its side, and the rest of the links alternate in that pattern. I threaded the ribbon from bottom to up for the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc links and the right to left for the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc links. Of course you can also choose to weave randomly but I liked the braid-like weave my pattern created.


4) Threading the ribbon is a bit tedious so I actually stopped about 1/3 the way through. I tied the ends of the ribbon into a bow and closed the necklace clasp so it created a double chained necklace. If you do this too, make sure to leave the ribbon long enough so the necklace can go over your head. You wouldn’t want to tie and untie the necklace every time you wear it!

5) Or you can also weave the ribbon through the entire length of the necklace to get something more like Lula Frost.

6) I kept mine simple, but you can add brooches, charms, feathers, and gems to it as well.

Gorgeous Crystal Jewelry (Guess the Price!)

Think you're a good jewelry appraiser? The price of one of these dazzling pieces is under $100, another under $1,000, and the third is under $10,000. Can you guess which is which?




Click to find out!
A) Earrings
B) Necklace
C) Necklace

Jewelry Lust

Spotted: Giovanna Battaglia's ginormous gold earrings on Jak and Jil


I am in lust. Those earrings are perfection. Giovanna Battaglia wears no dainty studded pearls but hefty, angular works of art. Through the help of ShopStyle, which is a fashion blogger's best friend, I stumbled on Kara Ross, who I think is the designer of Giovanna's earrings. I also found some similar quirky earrings on giltgroup.com.






Kara Ross Flower Ring, Kara Ross Small Multi-Flower Earrings, Giles & Brother Pear Cutout Earrings, and Mimi So Gold Diamond Drop Earrings

Fashion Retake: Key Pendant Necklace

Wow I haven't done a Fashion Retake in a while! This time I was inspired by a page in Lucky Magazine November 2008. Actress Karina Deyko selected a golden key necklace as one of her current obsessions. I found the necklace charming and easy to wear.



A month or so later I found the following necklace at a holiday art bazaar for only $5. I love it so much but it didn't go over so well with my mom who said it made me look like a latch-key kid! Perhaps I'll find a golden chain to hang it from but right now I'm too lazy to change it.

China Trinkets

During summer vacation, I took a trip to China to visit relatives. I didn't really get a chance to visit the touristy sites (except for the Olympic stadiums and the new Beijing Performing Arts Center), but we entertain ourselves quite well. We sung karaoke, watched a variety show, ate huge banquets, got massages, and went shopping (my favorite activity).

My grandma loves little trinkets so she took me to this mall that was more like an indoor market. Inside were hundreds (literally!) of makeshift stalls that sold everything from keychain charms to ceramic bowls to fake leather purses. My grandma and my aunt are ruthless bargainers so I pointed to what I liked and they did the talking. Here are pictures of all the little things I bought in China.

My grandma loves these- they are embroidered purses placed inside

each other in decreasing size, kind of like Russian nested dolls.

Lots of pearly jewelry in pink and white

These cell phone charms are adorable!

A close friend of mine collects piggies and her favorite color is yellow.

When I saw this, I thought of her.

I bought lots of cheap pendants and earrings.

I have a certain weakness for glass and this wing shaped one was stunning. I had to have it!

This was a present from my cousin. She said that most Chinese girls in their twenties have gold zodiac charms. Since it's year of the rat, I chose a cute little mouse.

Unusual Semblance

I was browsing through the jewelry section of the Neiman Marcus website and I came upon a necklace that seemed awfully familiar. The necklace was a miniature lock on a chain. Then it struck me; it was Ren’s necklace from the Japanese comic NANA!

Roberto Coin Appassionata Necklace

Ren from the manga Nana

Surprised by my love for mangas? Well I appreciate both sophisticated fashions and childish comics. Somehow, this necklace joined my two passions.

But with such similar designs, I wonder which idea came first. Did Ai Yazawa sketch Ren’s necklace, and then Coin replicated it in reality? Or maybe Roberto Coin came up with the concept, constructed it, and then Ai Yazawa loved it so much that she incorporated it into her manga? I actually think Ai Yazawa probably came up with the lock necklace first since Nana has been around since 2000. Also, this manga artist is super fashion savvy too. Yazawa loves to feature Vivianne Westwood designs on her characters, and she wrote and drew Paradise Kiss, which is the only fashion-centric manga I know. Or it could be pure coincidence. No matter what the reason, I’m happy that I could potentially buy Ren’s necklace… if I had $2,000.

Click here to read Nana on OneManga.com- it's a seriously good read.

Necklace Remake

To get extra mileage with your jewelry, you can click two shorter chains together to make a longer chain. I love this particular combination because all the beads on the first necklace are dangling in the center of my shirt, so it adds extra sparkle and attention to a plain tee.