Dec Your Neck

To make up for not updating for so long, I'm going to do kind of a glut of posts all at once here.

To start off, this one is about a couple of my favorite handmade necklaces.

Like most of the things I know how to do, I mostly taught myself with a lot of reading and trial and error. I'm sure there are things I do "wrong", but oh well. I tend to be happy with the results and that's the important thing, right?

I really like the look of a large focal pendant, and a lot of the ones I use are kind of sentimental. Both the pendant above and the one below I got while shopping with my mom.


Before I moved, we would have a "girl's day" every other Friday that usually involved lunch and a trip to some type of craft store, where we would do our very best to focus on one thing for more than twelve seconds. (My mother is not blessed with a lengthy attention span when it comes to craft supplies or stores full of cute things, a trait I seem to have inherited. Thanks Mom.) My trips back to California and hers to North Carolina to visit me involve lots of craft shops and then plunking down at home to make things or teach each other new things. It's one of my favorite things.


The pendant above I got on my trip to New York with Bats this past December. For some reason, Bats felt that walking for blocks and blocks in a snow storm was not only a good idea, but an "experience" we should have. Luckily I found a small bead shop where I could warm up for a few minutes. They had a great selection and awesome prices, and I grabbed a strand of probably fifteen of these for just $8. Each one is different, some are green and blue and solid and some are milky and translucent.

I think a lot of the reason I craft is to make my ideas and experiences into something concrete. There are lot of supplies I have, especially fabrics and beads, that are tied to memories for me. Crafting with these is like carrying a little memory with me, and I've always been sort of a random hoarder with things like that. (I know I have rocks and shells from beach trips in my closet somewhere...) I can wear a necklace and remember walking on a beach in California with millions of tiny shells or freezing my ass off in New York. I can carry a bag that reminds me of thrift shopping with my mom in Morro Bay.