Solution to photographing long necklaces?

In our last jewelry photography workshop we had a number of people frustrated with shooting extra long necklaces;wishing to have a way to show a sense of scale. I promised to get to work after the workshop trying out a few ideas I had, to see if they worked.

I purchased a life sized 5'9" female mannequin & wig, dressed her in my own clothing, and photographed her using two of our largest Kuhl Lite 120R softboxes, measuring 20" x 30". The photo I took today is shown here. Do you think she looks real? To suspend the belief this is a real model, I cropped her just below the chin. Her face does not look real, and is not needed for the necklace scale. I think this works really well for showing a sense of scale. If you used an image like this, you would still want a nice closeup to go along with it of course.

The upside is that a mannequin stands stone still, is always on time and allows even an amateur to get good results.

The down side is a mannequin doesn't dress itself and a quality mannequin and wig will set you back a few hundred dollars. Still, this is less expensive than a live model, who would need to be scheduled and paid every time you recieved new merchandise.