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.