Express Necklace Knock Off

One bad thing about successfully knocking off a product that you saw in a catalog or store, is that you start to feel this sort of power over everything, and start looking for other items that you want and can make yourself. I had just such a situation on my hands a few weeks ago when I was strolling through the mall and saw this.

I saw this long necklace and immediately started thinking about how much cuter all of my summery tops would be if accompanied by it. I remembered seeing Vanessa of V&Co spray paint some wooden beads on SYTYC, and I already had the perfect color of spray paint, Mediterranean by Valspar. I had a few wooden beaded necklaces that I took apart, and used Vanessa's method of threading one bead onto a toothpick, with a little tissue paper inside to keep it from falling down.

I sprayed one side and let it dry for a few hours, and then flipped the beads and sprayed again. It took 2 coats on each side to make sure that every last spot was covered, but I did a 3rd coat to cover one round of impatience, and the fingerprint evidence of someone who didn't give the beads enough time to dry before trying to flip them to the other side. :)

I ended up with a handful of gorgeous, shiny, perfect-summer-blue beads.

I didn't want my necklace to be exactly like the Express version, which only used medium sized beads, because I like the look of having a few larger beads in the middle and slightly smaller beads towards the ends, so that is what I did.

I laid out the beads as I wanted them on a towel so that they wouldn't roll away, and then threaded them on some silver beading wire. Luckily I had a pearl necklace that wouldn't miss one of it's large beads, and I liked that aspect of the original Express necklace, so I added it as well.

I got a long gold necklace from a thrift store for $1, cut one of the chain links so that I had a long strand, tied off the end of the silver beading wire and then aligned it with the wire that was holding the beads and twisted it around several times so that it wasn't sticking out.

One of the wooden necklaces originally had these tiny gold beads on it as well, so I threaded the excess wire through that before the wooden beads make the knot "disappear."

I looped the chain and bead strand over my neck until it was the length that I wanted, and then cut the chain at the desired length, and tied up the second end the same way that I did the first end. I then slipped it over my head and burst into song. I chose, Is This Love by Whitesnake, because I think you can’t really beat 80s ballads for a moment like that, but this part is really your call.

What do you think? Wouldn’t you have sung too? Admittedly, it’s not quite as gorgeous as Express’ version, but now I don’t have to try to justify spending $40 on one necklace.

I ended up with a lot of leftover beads because it turns out that when you paint 2 necklaces worth of beads, you have enough to make…you guessed it, 2 necklaces. My second one I put on a silver chain and included a few of the silver beads that were originally on the silver strand just to dress it up a bit.

Also, I have some fun news that I am incredibly excited about...I now am the very proud owner of an etsy shop!! Allow me to introduce you to Blues and Branches!

Over the past few months of participating in the DIY and crafting community, I have had numerous people make comments like, “I really like that, but don’t have the time/patience/energy to make one for myself.” To those people I now can say, “Well, since I’ve already worked out the kinks, I’ll just make one for you.” I’m pretty nice like that. :)

I filled my shop with a few of my favorite items that I have shared here, a few of the items that people asked me the most about, and also a few other little gems that I’ve been working on, including these necklaces! I would be happy to discuss a custom order with you as well. Please take a look at my tiny little corner in the world of Etsy here, and let me know what you think!

And as always, I’m excited to link my little necklace to some incredible parties this week. Please check out a wealth of ideas at the links listed here, and the CSI Project.