DIY Prince Tribute Necklace: When Doves Cry Purple Rain

We lost another member of rock n' roll royalty this week, and all the Prince stories and celebrations and mourning flooding my feed the past few days gave me an idea. An idea that made me put off my final Dapper Day post and do a little crafting, instead.

Someone told me I was the first to use the term "sad crafting" for my Alan Rickman tribute a few months back, but I think we've all had times when just *doing* something helps us process. So crank up Raspberry Beret, my friends, and let's go crazy making a "When Doves Cry Purple Rain" pendant:

Here's what you'll need:

- guitar pick metal blanks

- dove charm

- small purple tear-drop beads (these were the best I could find)

- thin silver chain

- silver head pins & O rings

- (optional) silver bail for hanging

1) Use small nippers to cut off the hanging ring from your dove charm, then file the leftover bumps smooth with a metal file.

2) Cover the metal guitar pick with painter's tape to protect it from scratches, then mark and drill 3 or 5 evenly spaced holes. I did a few variations, so here's what it looks like with 5 hanging beads:

 

 Personally I like it better with just 3, but that's up to you.

3) Insert & loop the head pins into your beads. (I use a 1-step looper for this, which is amazeballs.)

4) Now hang your beads with the thin chain and O rings, arranging the heights in a nice tapered effect.

5) Glue down your dove charm with a small dot of E-6000. (Let it tack up a minute before pressing it down, so the glue doesn't seep out underneath.)

6) Add the bail to the guitar pick if you're using one, or if not, just use a large O ring for hanging.

 

 Done!

I like that this is a subtle design you could wear everyday, but still one I bet a lot of Prince fans will pick up on.

Oh, and here's one more variation I did using a white dove charm:

 I'm not as big of a fan of the white dove, so since I had two of them, I tried an aged silver finish on the other one:

 

... which I liked even less. o.0

So I swapped the charm for a second metal dove, and will just save this one for a future project.

Of course now I have three necklaces and only need one, so I'm giving away both of these...

 ...to two of you!

Want one? If so, tell me which is your fav in the comments, and I'll pick two of you at random by my next post. I'll even ship internationally, because who loves ya? THIS GIRL.*

[Full disclosure: the 5-bead has some tiny scratches around the holes (on the right - see?) since that was before John & I realized we should cover them with protective tape first.]

Also, since I realize this project requires some tools that makes it a little more difficult to make on your own, I *could* make more of the metal-dove-three-drop versions and offer a few for sale, if any of you are interested. Let me know in the comments, since I'm still mega shy of this whole actually-selling-stuff thing. (If enough of you want one, I'd probably look for better teardrop beads, too.)

And finally, a few bonus shots of Lily "helping" me work:

Thanks, Lily-kins.

****

*UPDATE: The give-away has ended!

The winner of the white dove pendant is: Melanie Wood

And the winner of the 5-bead pendant is: Renee (of The Crown Of Beauty)

Congrats, ladies, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!