Fun with Gold Plated Serpentine Chain

This week's projects were made using a gold plated serpentine chain from Rings & Things. Well, as you can see, I had quite a bit of fun stringing beads onto the chain. I found it necessary in most cases to take the clasp ends off temporarily, but was surprised how many beads had large enough holes. All of the beads used here have been previously mentioned on abeadaday, so you might find them familiar.

The 3-tiered flower necklace was made using wooden beads with decopauged flowers that I cut out from a spool of ribbon I found on clearance last spring. I didn't let the oblong bead dry long enough so the close up version still shows a little hazy, but after a few days, it will dry clear. I liked the 3 dimensional look of stacking the little flowers. The challenge was how to hang the other round wooden beads from the large bead. I cut a piece of 24 gauge gold plated craft wire, doubled it and ran it through the oblong bead after stringing it on the neck chain. Then I twisted, trimmed the wire, made a loop and wrapped the remaining wires. I hope you can see how much I enjoyed working on that one!

I found the colorful glass squares below last year in a mix package and it's amazing how many options there are for using them. The colors are great and remind me of toys! Since the neck chain is 18", there was plenty of room for adding the top yellow square to turn it into more of a pendant look than just strung-on beads.

This yellow oblong bead to the left is from a 1960's jewelry piece. I originally had a good sized bag of them and over the years continue to find ways to use them. These are the kind of beads that should be showcased like a piece of art and a simple chain does just that.

This 27mm jet swarovski rivoli is such a great showpiece, it was perfect for this serpentine chain. It would look great with either the gold or the silver. The fun part is the fact that the serpentine chain formed it's own loop at the bottom when I ran both ends up through the hole in the back. Perfect for hanging the cutest little swarovski vitrail disk.

The little wooden sticks below are adorable on their own, but so cute in this little grouping as a simple focal piece on the serpentine chain.

AND, just for fun, I used one of the oblong wood beads that I had colored in with a gold leafing pen. Any time arts and crafts are involved in jewelry making, I know I'm going to have a great time!!

By the way, if you haven't visited the Rings & Things blog recently, they are now doing a monthly giveaway and also have a nice write-up about the discontinuation of the swarovski bicone among other things!

Hope you are all finding time to do a little crafting too!!