Remember my 5 Kg button box? Well, it weights slightly less since I started using a few buttons for different projects. The first one was a collar-like necklace. The starting point for the necklace was my Roberta di Camerino shirt with trompe l'oeil red buttons on blue background, but I also had in mind the extravagant necklaces worn by Iris Apfel and Renaissance collar chains.
Rather than using red buttons and a blue string to reproduce the Roberta di Camerino design, I opted for blue buttons and a red string, reversing in this way the initial colour code and the concept behind the shirt (real buttons instead of trompe l’oeil ones).
Material chosen: Lots of 4-hole blue buttons in 2 different sizes (depends from your neck size and from the button you choose - in my case I used over 70 buttons in total) and roughly 10 metres of red chamois leather string.
Notes: a) To make the necklace more extravagant you can use the 4-hole buttons as the base for a jewel-like 1 or 2-hole button; b) bear in mind that if you don't pick up the right buttons the necklace will become rather heavy. I don't mind heavy necklaces, but some people out there hate them, so remember to avoid extremely heavy buttons; c) chamois leather string can be expensive, but the final result is much better compared to what you get using cotton or plastic based strings and I can assure you the necklace will definitely look more elegant.
Step 1: Make three long necklaces of buttons. To make one necklace: take roughly 3 metres of leather string, bend it in two parts and make a sort of hangman's noose (Fig. 1 after the Roberta di Camerino shirt). This is going to be the necklace closure, so make sure it’s large enough for the size of buttons you have chosen. Start weaving the string in and out of the buttons, as if you were sewing them onto a shirt.
Step 2: Once you have finished the three necklaces (Fig. 2, measure the necklaces on your neck to realise when you should stop), put them down on a table (button side down) and link the three necklaces together with another leather string, making sure the three necklaces are firmly held together (Fig. 3).
Step 3: Wear it as a three-tiered collar necklace and enjoy it!
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Your necklaces are amazingly beautiful! I keep talking myself out of the color wheel necklace because it is only 16', but I don't know how much longer I can hold out.
Posted by: engagement rings | November 23, 2010 at 01:06 AM