Fuck Off Bunting.

I have been very clear in the past about my vices. These are the type of weaknesses that are unavoidable to me and creep into every area of my life. I have done my best to control the urges and I will be the first person to tell you that it’s unhealthy.
…I am addicted to fringe, leopard print and leather.

Last week my boyfriend and I had conversation, about how we could identify the formative experiences of our lives; the friendships, the kisses, the gigs, the arguments, the disasters and I think I might have to put my time watching Jem and the Holograms in with all of those.
Most of my efforts in life have been directed to being a bad ass Rock chick and Jem was most certainly one of those, coming out on top every time I put the pink VHS in the machine.

There are a loads of things that are amazing about Jem, but here are just a few:

She was a billionaire, teenage, rock star, orphan. 
If you could choose things that send people insane pretty quickly, money, adolescence, fame and grief would certainly be among them. However despite all these factors, Jem seemed  pretty well rounded, well rounded enough to be the (sometimes annoying) mother hen to a load of other orphan girls.

She had baby pink bleached hair way before you did.
The fact that Jem was rocking this look long before anyone I know, is probably a reason why I dream of having pastel bleached hair so frequently, only to know that the up-keep is beyond my attention span. Jem flitted expertly between being her good girl persona Jerrica and her super star persona Jem, long before Sash Fierce or Lady Gaga ever wore latex hotpants.

She had a nemesis, but took it all in her stride.
The Misfits, were Jem & the Holograms rival band.  Haters gonna hate and it certainly didn’t bother Jem when they tried to bring her down. She’s better than the Misfits and their passive aggression, even though she would have been envying their bad ass outfits.

Her wardrobe was outstanding, including earrings that activated her holographic super computer ‘Synergy’.
This means the woman could probably write computer code…in the 80’s…whilst wearing a selection of brightly coloured but fantastic outfits. Now I am aware that the reason Jem and the Holograms outfits had so much fringe, animal print and leather was because it was made in the late 80’s, but to me those details are timeless and have a well deserved place in my current wardrobe.
The outfits were what kept me hooked through all of the zany adventures and all of my current day fashion vices could be traced  back to Jem’s individual aesthetic.

…And now you’ll be glad to know we have finished the the Jem love-in and it has fulfilled its purpose of being a rather long winded segue….I can now tell you about this necklace that I made.

I thought I would combine a number of my loves, by making a fringed leather necklace. I had seen something similar in allsaints some time ago and had always had the idea in the back of my head, think “I could do that”.

I work in casual dress environment and like to use statement necklaces as a way to liven up the day to day t-shirt and jeans combo.

I bought a a leather off-cut from eBay and already had the silver jewellery findings I’d need to make the necklace (or similar enough findings that I could fudge it.)

I used my rotary blade to cut the thing strips of leather. I made my strips from all different directions, in the hope the different grains would add more texture to the piece. The strips had varying lengths and widths.

Once I cut all my strips I put a folding end tip crimp on each piece, flattening the plates with my round nose pliers. This was a little fiddly and if you were to look closely I could have done with the next size up of folding tips for a neater finish, but I made do with what I had.

My necklace was going to be on a silver chain and all I had in my stash was an anchor link chain. Again for neatness and so that the leather strips would have hung flatter, a
larger sized cable chain might have been better, but this was good enough and did some good stash busting.

I measured the chain around my neck and also against a necklace, I already owned for length and added a lobster clasp fastening to the end. I added jump rings to mark  the stretch of chain I wanted the leather strands to cover.
I then used jump rings to connect the tip crimps the the chain.

In trying on the finished necklace…I am not 100% sure I like it. It is pretty close to the idea I had in my head, but despite my intense fringe loving, there is a Christina Aguilera, circa ‘Genie in a Bottle’ vibe about it that irks me. Something tells me I saw this in allsaints a pretty long time ago and had I made this in 2004, I would be chuffed.
There are a number of things I do like about this necklace. I like how the different strands sit different ways showing both the buffed side of the leather and the natural grain. I like how it is black, so will go with most tops. But most of all I like that one of the Misfits would have worn this to the battle of the bands.