Around the same time as the press photo of Lestat in the rockstar trousers was released in July, another press photo also got my attention – but for the jewellery he’s wearing rather than the clothing! It’s a really unique necklace with elements of bondage wear in it, and it makes me really intrigued to see what other jewellery he’ll be wearing in season 3.
I looked everywhere online (with the help of two Discord servers and ten people!) and couldn’t find anything even close, and then I realised I could just make it! I used to do a lot of jewellery making when I was a teenager (including a jewellery art class in high school where I learned soldering, enamel, and stone-setting techniques!), and it turns out those skills never really leave you.
It ended up costing me about £30 including shipping, all told (minus the chains I initially bought that were the wrong size).
I had a bit of trial and error with the lengths of chain and the size of the jump rings, so to save you all the trouble, here’s what I bought from eBay:
- 3x 24in 3.2mm thick round stainless steel snake chain necklaces
- 1x 7.5in 2.5mm thick round stainless steel round snake chain bracelet (only because I couldn’t find a 3.2mm thick bracelet length and you can’t shorten snake chain without soldering)
- 1x 15mm 3mm thick stainless steel O-ring
- 3x 10mm 1mm thick jump rings
- You’ll also need two needle nose pliers, and two small jump rings (but you’ll likely have that included from removing lobster clasps from the chains)
Tutorial:
- First, take the O-ring and place 3 large jump rings on it.
- Take one of the long chains and thread it through the upper right jump ring. Clasp the chain closed to form a loop.
- Take another long chain and open up the jump ring on its tail (non-clasp end) and join to the large jump ring on the left of the O-ring. Join its clasp end onto the tail of the final, long chain to form a very long chain.
- Thread the tail of the very long chain through the loop of the other chain, and bring it back around to the O-ring. Remove the clasp and join its small jump ring to the same large jump ring on the left side of the O-ring.
- Remove the clasp from the short chain (bracelet) and join its small jump ring onto the final large jump ring at the bottom of the O-ring.
OPTIONAL BONUS: Add a charm or beads to the bottom of the short, dangling leash chain!
This is the third, and final part of my Lestat-inspired Halloween costume, but as it turns out it works really nicely over a plain dress too! Plus the dangle chain worked very well as an autistic fidget-toy…
Next week I’ll post the nighttime photoshoot showing all three pieces together!