Tribal Jewelry: Get Creative with Bungy Cord

Oh, we all crave creativity. But sometimes copycat-designs are ‘just the thing’ to shave off time of making something ‘unique’. Here’s a novel idea that looks so ‘belonging’, that could be made with recycled items.

 

I’d long to make it one day:

 

a tribal necklace

a la designer Proenza Schouler’s

Resort Collection 2011.

 

  

So, cool.

 

How-to Make the Chunky, Tribal Necklace:

In a nutshell:

• get some rope and an old bungy cord from the garage.  Cut them to pieces and lay your necklace pieces out as is shown in the picture below, before wrapping them together.

tip 1: try that rope on in your neck. Is it comfortable?? If not, you might like to use the kind of soft, silk rope that you’ll find in haberdashery shops for curtain drawbacks of pillow edging instead.

• get some nice, thick cotton yarn from your knitting yarn stash (yes, some remnants will suffice).

tip 2: at this stage in the game, it PAYS to actually look into your wardrobe and see which outfits could use a tribal necklace like this, and then pick yarn colors accordingly. Ditto with the semi-precious stone pendants.

• Use some strong glue to glue the ropes together, before wrapping them with the yarn.

tip 3: see ‘which glue for the job’ article for ideas as to what to use when. 

• Let the glue dry before adding beads.

tip 4: i know from experience that if my necklace is too heavy, I won’t wear it (for more than 2 minutes). So, consider limiting the heavy stones and to add significant crochet  (or paper mache) elements instead.  Hip, and light-weight.

 

In the making….

Done.

Looks so much more ‘difficult’ than it actually is.

 

 

 

Alternative Necklace Design Ideas:

The above is a hip, bright color combination. Consider a beach scheme instead, with sand-color, sage green, aqua blue and off-white; or an all neutrals with a bright contrast color. Both would be great!

 

In fact, when I went back over the Proenza Schouler Resort 2011 collection, I found that she has another version of the bright necklace in her collection, looking exactly like what I had in mind.

 

 

source howto photo / copycat necklace: Honestly … wtf

source top & bottom photos: proenzaschouler.com

 

 

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