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by: Erin Singleton

With 3 days to go before Halloween it's getting pretty hard to tell if your neighbours have been decorating or were the victims of a grizzly murder. In the evening, ghosts sway from tree branches while jack-o-lanterns flicker their orange glow from porch after front porch. To help get in the spirit, without all the cobwebs and caution tape, we've come up with this ghoulish necklace.

A Swarovski skull dangles from a strand of matte black river stone while bead caps and bicones mimic the orange fire of the pumpkin. A lacey matte black chain finishes off the necklace. After all, what's scarier than a bump in the night, than the creek of a hinge and the rattling chains.

To begin the necklace, create the skull drop. Place the skull onto an eyepin and top with a few 3mm bicones or metal rounds. Working part way up your round nose pliers, create a wrapped loop to finish the drop. Make sure to have a good long drop (6mm +) to keep the skull from interfering with the stones. I didn't think to do this step first and ended up trying to assemble the wrapped loop in place on the finished necklace, making things way more difficult than they needed to be!

Next, layout a pattern of 10mm matte black river stones, interspersed with bead caps and 3mm bicones. On a 1-2 foot length of beading wire, string half of your pattern, then the skull drop, followed by the mirror image of stones and crystals. Using tube crimps and a set of crimping pliers, attach the beaded section of the necklace to either end of an approximately 3 foot length of chain.

To play with the finished length of the necklace, grab the chain at approximately equal distances from the beaded section and bring the two points together at the back of your neck. Try moving the lengths of the two strands around until you are happy with the proportions. Once happy, attach a jumpring to each link at the back of your neck. You may want to count links to ensure the beaded section is centered! Attach a lobster claw to the jumpring on your right (if you're right handed, or left if you're a tad sinister) and a chain extender or a length of chain to the opposite jumpring.
For this necklace, I cut about 2 inches of chain off of the 3 foot length, used the main length for the necklace and the 2 inch section as a chain extender.
To add some weight and visual interest to the back of the necklace I used an eyepin and wrapped looped to secure a few bicones and the final bead cap from the package.

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Components Clicking on components links will open a new window so that you don't lose this page.
	Qty: 3	s37622 Chain - Medium Almost Round Chain - Matte Black (Foot)	Price: $ 2.42 per	In Stock
	Qty: 1	tc01-0030-13 Crimp Tubes - Seamless - 2mm - Black (100)	Price: $ 7.89 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	250efw01930stl Econoflex (tm) Beading Wire - 30ft .019 (Medium) - Stainless Steel (Spool)	Price: $ 6.95 per	In Stock
	Qty: 1	22601111 EYEpins - 2in / 24ga - Gunmetal (100)	Price: $ 1.90 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	s6757 Glass Bead Wide Lotus Blossom - 13mm - Antiqued Coral (15)	Price: $ 5.54 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	s26415 Jump Rings Open - 7mm - Matte Black (10 grams)	Price: $ 4.25 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	s27236 Lobster Clasp - 12mm - Matte Black	Price: $ 1.55 per	Sorry, Out of Stock
	Qty: 1	tc93-0401-13 Metal Beads - 3mm Round - Black (100)	Price: $ 7.55 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	27600621-03 Stone Beads Round - 10mm - Matte Black River Stone	Price: $ 4.60 per	In Stock
	Qty: 1	2775750s39223 Swarovski Bead - 19mm Faceted Skull (5750) - Crystal Red Magma	Price: $ 15.06 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	27753011002002 Swarovski Bead - 3mm Faceted Bicone (5301/5328) - Crystal Copper (36)	Price: $ 6.15 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.