Those who read this blog regularly know that my love of DANNIJO is border-line excessive. I am obsessed. Their stuff is just so fabulous. I’ve been coveting the Gia necklace for quite some time now. I wrote about it here and here. It’s a tangled mess of brass chains attached to antiqued silver cables, and absolutely to die for. It’s the sort of necklace that would go with absolutely everything – dressy or casual.
(The real deal… I die.)
That said, it retails for $370, and as much as I love it, I don’t have $370 sitting around right now. So, as you may have guessed, I headed to the trusty bead store and set out to make it myself. I spent about $40 on materials and half an hour to make it.
What you’ll need: about a foot of silver cable chain, 6 feet of gold-tone rope chain, 5 feet of a lighter weight gold-tone chain, a silver clasp, and gold & silver tone jump rings. Pliers, wire-cutters, and silver wire will also make your life easier.
Start by dividing the rope chain into 5 sections. (No cutting, just fold it.) Attach a jump ring to each end of the chain.
Then, surround each of the folds with a jump ring (so that the chain can move freely through the jump ring.) You’ll have two folds on each side. Attach each jump ring to the first jump ring.
Then, attach the main jump ring to your silver cord. Cut the silver cord in half and repeat the whole process on the other side of the necklace.
Your necklace will now look like this.
Then, attach one end of your lighter-weight chain to the main jump ring. This gets a little tricky as there is now quite a few chains & rings attached to the main jump ring.
Take hold of both ends, and begin to wrap the light weight chain around the heavier weight chains.
Keep wrapping. Wrap loosely, and keep it haphazard to attain a more messy look.
When you only have a bit of chain left, stop wrapping.
Attach the end of your chain to the main jump ring on the other side of the necklace.
You’re almost done. Now, just attach a clasp & jump ring to the other ends of the silver cable.
Voila… the finished product.
Throw on a striped t-shirt and make your boyfriend take a picture.
Congrats. You just made something you’ll wear constantly… (and saved about $330!) You thrifty, thrifty thing, you! Go shopping with your savings. (Kidding!)
But seriously – this is an easy one and looks pretty close to the original!
