Wire wrapped collar style necklace

The idea of making a stiff collar by binding several wires together came from a necklace my uncle gave me. There the similarity ends, for the other necklace has far more elaborate wire work, and is made of square silver wire, with a rope chain.

I actually had started by wire wrapping this funky shaped beach stone, which was polished in Dad's rock tumbler. Fortunately, I was unable to wrap it in such a way as to get a loop to hang it as a pendant. I was stuck with my wire knotted at the back of the stone. I had been thinking of trying something like this collar idea, and this difficulty with the stone gave me the perfect opportunity. I made the collar out of brass and copper to match it with the colours of the stone, and then took the wires at the back of the stone and wrapped them around the collar to anchor it in place.

Here is a close up of my end detail which I used to attach my chain. The chain itself is a design I've been using almost from the very start of my efforts in jewellery making. They are approximately 1 inch long pieces of brass wire, 20Ga curled into a closed "S" shape using the round nosed pliers. These are then linked with jump rings made of the same wire on the same pliers, so the size matches the size of the curls on the "S" links.

Below you can see the original necklace from which the inspiration came: