Ribbon Wrapped USA Necklace

I for one am proud to live in this country.  We have such opportunity here and there is so much to be thankful for.

I do wish that the presidential debates were held with a little more dignity and respect instead of being characterized by immaturity and disrespect, but that is a completely different story, and does not make me less proud of my country.  Maybe a little less proud of the people running it at times.

But you can't have it all I suppose!

 Regardless, I have been wanting to make a necklace or bracelet with ribbon laced through it for quite some time now.  I wasn't really sure exactly what I wanted to use and was wishywashy on it for the longest time, but tonight it all came together.

I used wide loop black chain that actually used to be a swag style belt once upon a time.  It has since become multiple pieces of jewelry, including the last of my fishing lure necklaces (the pearl strands were from this belt).

I laced the sheer red ribbon through, alternating sides and directions.  I just tied it at the end, I will probably glue it at some point.  There's a slight chance this was done on a whim and I had not fully planned out each step.  BUT for now, tying is plenty sufficient.

 The pendant is made from salt dough (1 c salt, 2c flour, 1c lukewarm water.  mix. mold. dry. done) that I painted with water color paints and then put a coat of resin over later.  I would suggest mod podge or similar on the back, at least 5 coats is my usual, to seal it.  You could do resin but resin is expensive, mod podge is not, no one will see the back, you get where I am going with this.

For any new visitors, my usual method of resin mixing is plastic spoonfuls into plastic takeout cups made for condiments when I need small batches. 

I made a bail out of wire by doubling it over, putting the loop end through the pendant (back to front) and then wrapping the ends around the loop to secure it.

 I attached it with a small bronze jump ring.


It kind of reminds me of an olympic pendant.  I would like to be an olympian.

...Except that whole training part.  Me and running or weight lifting or being yelled at by a coach just don't really get along.

Except for my volleyball coach.  For whatever reason, he was able to get me to run faster than any other coach and actually enjoy it.

But that might have been because I was making the rest of the team miserable with the pace I set...Misery loves company they say.

Anyway I attached him and there ya go, necklace!

I was sitting there pondering what to add, what to add, what to add...and I eventually determined it really didn't need anything.  It hangs just below the neckline of my tank top, so it is a longer necklace as I am sure you can tell.

I like the mix of the chain and the ribbon. In fact, I really have just decided that I like to mix everything I can.

I realize the lettering on the pendant most likely looks a little cartoony.  I am ok with that personally.  You could always stamp something on there if you wanted to.  

I made my own closure by attaching a key charm onto a smaller chain and attaching all that to the big chain.  I happened to have a key that could work like one of those bar and ring closures.

Pray and vote, people.  In that order.