I just had the pleasure of finding out you can't use essences on items with metamods. After getting frustrated with looking for options for rolling +strength on my amulet with +1 gems, I annulled the mod on a 1 in 4, and decided to just give up on it and start essence spamming.

4 essences later I hit it.

Would love to hear any advice on how to ACTUALLY craft an amulet like this, and if there are any clever methods that don't just involve exalt/annul spam or slamming a fracturing orb on the +1.