Unconfined Aspirations: DIY Necklace for Cosmopolitan India.

*Please read all the steps before you begin, there some suggestions in the later steps that contradict the beginning - efficiency through trial and error.*

This is kind of long overdue, but we were waiting for the hard copy, but we can't do it any longer. So Cosmopolitan India was doing a DIY feature for their July issue and they asked us to contribute! YEH! We feel so international or should we say cosmopolitan (bad pun totally intended)! We always talk about doing a craft-day and were planning on making something anyway, this gave us a good reason to get our act together and actually make something. We were inspired by this awesome VPL piece and below is our take on it. I'm sure you could use bungee cord and get some resin from an arts/crafts store or online and replicate it, but we went with something simpler, which still made a statement - rope and neon! We will do an update post once we get the hard copy and scan in the feature, the .pdf we have right now is just not clear enough

You’ll need:

• A pair of very sharp scissors

• A thick rope, measured to the desired length around your neck with an additional

six inches for making the tie in the back of the necklace.

• A secondary rope, thinner than the original, cut about three times longer then the

thicker piece.

Before you start: You should always get both pieces longer than recommended just in

case something goes wrong and always double-check before you cut because you don’t

want it to go to waste!

Measure the thicker rope around your neck, keeping an inch extra, snip the rest off for

later. You’ll use it to make the tie in the back of the necklace.

Step 1: Take both pieces and align at one end.

Step 2: Take the thinner rope and go underneath the thicker one.

Step 3: Fold the thinner rope over the thicker one and take it underneath itself.

Step 4: Repeat the process until you’re about an inch and half away from

the end and tie secure knots at the end to keep the rope/thread from unraveling. You can

also tape the end to make it even more secure, which is what we ended up doing.

If you do end up using tape, make sure the second piece (our neon yarn) is not slippery and has enough traction because if it doesn't, it'll just unravel even after you tightly wrap it.

Step 5: This is where the extra rope we had you save comes in handy. Take that piece and

cut it in half. On one end of the necklace, fold over the rope so it makes a loop and secure by wrapping the thread continuously. (If you plan on using a rope as the secondary piece, you can get a matching yarn to finish off the necklace.)

We actually made this part harder then it had to be. But you know, hindsight. Here is the first place we contradict the beginning - you don't have to cut and save some extra rope, you can just keep the main piece long enough in the beginning so that you can make the loop. Secure as stated on top.

Step 6: On the other end of the necklace, take the last piece of the extra rope, and secure it by wrapping the thread to the edge, just like in the last step. Cut any excess thread off, once you’re done wrapping it around and finish by tying very secure knots.

Second contradiction. Once again instead of cutting and attaching the extra piece later, just keeping the rope longer in the beginning, that way you don't have to cut and attach it, all you have to do is finish it. Hopefully that made sense.