A technique that I did try recently was chain maille. Most of the examples I've seen have looked quite daunting - Byzantine and Japanese for example - and while the results are lovely I don't think I have the patience. However, I saw a reasonably simple project in a magazine (I can't for the life of me remember which one, but I'll dig it out at home for a proper credit). It involved a set of simple two-by-four-by-two links strung between beads on eyepins.
I already had the beads I wanted to use (foil lined purple glass beads, and glass amethyst beads from Beads Direct), and a random selection of bead caps from various places, so I stocked up on about 200 8mm silver jump rings and got to work.
The first thing I discovered is chain maille, even the simple stuff, is hard. Not just keeping track of where the rings are (and this was fairly simple) but also in opening an closing all those jump rings. If I'm going to make it a regular thing I'll need to invest in a jump ring tool or a second set of flat-nosed pliers. Opening by hand and pliers just won't cut it - after a very short time my fingers ached and my nails were shredded. I switched to round-nosed pliers in my other hand (the only alternative I had) but that was fiddly and awkward.
The easiest way to get through the large number of jump rings to link was to do them in sections and link to beads with 5mm rings as I went. That kept it from getting too tedious. It turned out I had enough beads to do two short necklaces. I did try for one long one, but the amount of glass made it far too heavy.
After this there were still quite a few of the of the smaller beads left, so I made a bracelet and earrings to complete the set.
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