The hazard of putting supplies away is that you find things with which to play!  I purchased this silver-plated bead from Rings & Things that looks like a coral branch perhaps two months ago, because it appealed to me — no intended purpose.  It was in a pile to put away (yes, it can take me months), as were some vintage seed beads.  I keep my vintage separate from the rest of my seeds, and when I opened that drawer, I spotted these lovely watery-looking vintage Italian seeds.  They were a gift from a relative several years ago, and a very thoughtful gift, especially as she’s not a beader; she just had fun shopping for me.  The writing on the bag says they are circa 1930, from Italy.

I added the rice pearls for a continuation of the watery theme.  I tried several different coral-colored beads, but they were too strong of a contrast to these blue beads.  The clasp could definitely be better, but I don’t keep many clasps in stock, and this is what I had on hand.  A vaguely anchor-looking bar to the toggle makes it okay.  I would prefer sterling to this pewter, but it’ll be just fine.

This necklace is quite short — the shortest inner strand is 13 1/2″, the coral strand is 16″.  The shortest two strands fit around the base of my neck, and the coral rests below.  I used multiple strands to try to balance the visual weight of the piece of coral with the seed beads.