Okay, so you guys know I love digging up old treasures and trying to figure out how they tick. Right? Totally stumbled onto this blurry black-and-white photo recently. It was some advertisement for the 1929 Chicago World’s Fair. Honestly, looked like most other Art Deco junk at first glance. Just shiny metal stuff.
But then, something caught my eye. This one necklace seemed… off. Weird, right? It wasn’t the usual perfectly symmetrical stuff. This one had a chain that looked kinda like an actual rope all tangled up, but real delicate. And the pendant wasn’t just one solid piece; it looked like tiny little interlocking gears maybe? The photo quality was awful, so I had to squint.
I started digging. Spent hours online. Typical art history books? Forget it. Mentioned the Fair, but skipped the super unique boutique pieces. Finally hit gold in some forgotten auction listing description from like 2005. Said the piece wasn’t mass-produced at all. Made specifically by one jeweler for the Fair. The design inspiration?
Machinery! But beautiful machinery. That tangled chain? That was supposed to be wire rope, like the kind holding up all those massive steel bridges being built back then. And the pendant? Not gears, but tiny, precise rivets and studs linked together like engineering blueprints, forming this geometric shape. Wild! Never seen anything like that before.
Fired up my little hobby bench. Couldn’t afford platinum and sapphires, obviously. Used:
- Copper wire (for the rope chain effect)
- Tiny silver beads (my stand-in for rivets)
- Brass jump rings
- A basic geometric clasp
First attempt? Total disaster. Tried to twist the copper wire chain too tight. Looked more like a lumpy snake than elegant rope. Took like three tries to get the tension loose enough for it to drape nicely but still feel structured.
The pendant was the real beast. Trying to link those tiny beads together in a consistent pattern with jump rings… My eyes crossed after twenty minutes. Dropped beads everywhere. Seriously underestimated how fiddly it was. Had to stop, take a breather, and come back with better lighting and a magnifier.
Slowly, piece by tiny piece, it started coming together. Linking those “rivets”. Not gonna lie, my fingers were sore. When I finally connected the last jump ring and hooked the pendant onto the chain? Felt amazing.
Holding it up… Yeah. Got it. Seeing the intent in the design clicks when you build it. That mix of tough industrial stuff – the wire, the rivet shapes – made incredibly graceful? That was the genius. The jeweler took the grunt work of steel and bolts and made it elegant. No wonder it stood out then. Still stands out now, even in my cheapo version.
