"Men" jewellery for me

Hey and welcome in the new year! I have some big posts in the works for my other blog but over here I'll be sharing simple things that don't require a lot of effort or pictures :) I still need to figure out a way to take quick and nice outfit photos before I go out but for now I just have a little pendant story.

A while ago I was browsing Aliexpress for some stainless steel jewellery. See, I like the silver colour but I hate the smell of actual silver and also oxidation is a bitch... So I came across this cute pendant from the first photo (now sadly not available). What is the deal with all the stainless steel jewellery being marketed towards men? Is it because steel is used for weapons and machinery? Anyway, this particular pendant doesn't look at all manly to me. It's really dainty with all the roses and that big rhinestone. The only brutally macho thing about it is the ball chain. It reminds me of the chains soldiers wear their tags on. It looks so mismatched to me, I didn't even bother to take a picture with the pendant on it. They came in separate bags.

The pendant itself has a single huge loop on the back that makes it unbalanced and difficult to incorporate into the type of designs I like - with hanging chains and bead dangles.

I decided to put it on a velvet choker instead. I got some 15 and 20 mm black velvet ribbon because I didn't know which one would go better.

Here you can also see just how small the pendant is, barely 25x35mm. Manly!

I tried both around my neck and went with the wider one. Making a ribbon choker is not rocket science - the longest part is figuring out the length. I wanted to let it hang a little in a very slight V shape.

I then cut the ends to size, melted them and attached ribbon ends making sure the pendant was still in place because there's no (easy) way to add it later! I use nylon jawed pliers to close the metal findings.

My standard way to finish a choker is with a lobster clasp on the right and a large jump ring with an extension chain on the left. I like to add a matching teardrop bead at the end of the chain.

I'm just in my house clothes...

I'll see about taking a decent picture of it some time when I get out in fancier clothes and makeup but so far I'm very pleased with the transformation! As I said, I need to set up something for no-fuss OOTD and FOTD pics. I have a few ideas, each have pros and cons:
- tripod with a small camera in the bedroom
Pros: nice even background, good lighting, good camera and framing
Cons: no mirror and the camera screen is fixed. No portable mirrors either.
- tripod with the big camera in the bedroom
Pros: same as above, camera screen can turn to 180 degrees
Cons: Cats. The camera is too heavy to leave on the tripod unsupervised
- mirror selfies with the wardrobe door
Pros: easy and cats won't kill the setup, full size mirror
Cons: backlight and terrible background, terrible photo quality

What do you think of my new choker? Any advice for taking pictures of myself? I prefer being on the other side of the camera but unfortunately I don't have another model for showing the things I want to discuss on this blog. I guess this is a challenge I'll have to overcome by the end of the year :)

Blackkitty (^^)~