So I decided to try to make a necklace from scratch. I ordered a chunk of raw amber from Chiapas, and sanded/polished it up to get a good idea of what sort of material I was working with. Using a jeweler's saw, I cut out a slice that I thought would make a nice pendant (I really like the clear/black dichotomy of this piece), grinded it into more pleasing shape, sanded and polished it. Then I sawed off a pretty wide slab that I'd be able to get 6 beads hewn out of. I cut it in a grid to get six square pieces, ground those into more rounded shapes, beveled the edges a bit, sanded and polished them. Finally, I used a push drill to drill holes through them, and drilled a hole in the pendant to anchor a clasp to.

Next step is to do the metal part, which I plan on doing from scratch as much as possible. I won't be smelting the metal from ore, but I will be alloying the copper and tin/zinc/bismuth to make a bronze, which I'll cast into long rods, which I'll then pull through a draw plate to get sufficiently thin wire. After that, I'll wrap the wire around a mandrel, cut the coil into rings, and weave the rings together, with the beads and the pendant, and add a clasp to the back.

I've decided to do everything by hand, so far no power tools have been used.