Peter Pan Collar Chainmail Necklace

This necklace came about in a roundabout way as it started out as a bracelet. I’d wanted to try a simple chainmail pattern that used two different sized jump rings and that wouldn’t take too much thought to put together. Yet after I finished the bracelet, I looked at it and was left unexcited; it was just too plain. Unsure of what I wanted to do, I put it away and came back to it months later, deciding to change it into a necklace.

First I lengthened the rectangle chainmail piece (since obviously my neck has a larger circumference than my wrist). However, I was too lazy to make the pattern go all the way around my neck, and instead I attached a chain of jump rings (with the clasp attached to it) to either side of my now longer rectangle piece. I put on my new necklace and wasn’t happy with it because the rectangle piece unattractively bunched in places.

To fix this problem, I decided to remove a section of the jump rings in the center of my rectangle so that the bottom part of the rectangle would have some extra space. The final thing I did was adding a pearl that dangled from the center to add a bit more visual interest. It took a bit of trial and error (as I didn’t really plan on getting where I ended up), but I was pretty happy with the way the necklace turned out; its shape reminds me of a Peter Pan collar (which I happen to love in clothing).