Thursday, July 22, 2010

Wood Bead Necklace Tutorial

Sorry it took so long to get all of these directions up, Andrew was a bit under the weather after his doctors appointment and subsequent blood test (bleh) this week. Oh can I just say he did amazing with getting his blood drawn, he hardly even noticed while I'm sitting there trying not to pass out since I'm holding him!

Anyway all is well and I've finally got pictures of the steps for each of the necklaces I made for the craft club, enjoy.

This one is pretty straight forward, but I love that there are so many different ways you can personalize this one. (source of inspiration
here)You'll need: wood beads, ribbon, and paint/spray paint. Also jump rings from the jewelry section are optional, I'll explain later... So start with some wood beads, any size you like and any combination of sizes. I got a large package of 5/8", a package of 3/4" and a package of 1". I actually mistakenly got dolls head for the 3/4"...that means they only had a hole part way through...grrr. Well I just got out my drill and fixed that so either make sure you grab beads or be ready to whip out the power tools. :D
Next paint or spray paint them any color. I went with paint because I had it on hand, but when it was done I didn't like the matte finish. Luckily I had some semi-gloss wood finish in a spray can on hand from when I refinished my kitchen chairs. That really helped the look a lot so I recommend either a gloss finish over the paint or spray paint it with a gloss or semi gloss to begin with. (see V and Co's original post
here for a great way to spray paint the beads). I put my beads on a BBQ skewer and painted them like that, it worked pretty well.

After the beads have been painted (and finished if that's what you choose) and they are plenty dry start threading them onto the ribbon in whatever pattern you would like.

ORhere is where the jump rings could come in handy.
I was thinking it would be cool to get the most out of this necklace to paint the beads a neutral color and then have a changeable ribbon. So instead of threading the beads onto the ribbon, thread them with a needle and thread instead and tie both sides to a jump ring.


I double my thread over twice and tied it to one jump ring and then threaded my beads on.


I put a bit of hot glue on the end to make sure the jump ring doesn't rotate. If it does and the seam comes to the thread it could slip off.

Finished with jump rings.


Cut two strips of ribbon a good length for each side and loop them onto the jump rings.







When its all done you can got even further in personalizing it if you'd like and make a pendant of your initial...
Or of different shapes... obviously here it isn't attached, but simply drill a hole through it and attach it with a jump ring.
Phew, well I hope I didn't overwhelm you with all the different ways to make this necklace. Let me know if there is anything unclear about these directions. And if you end up making this necklace, send me a picture of your version!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Don't miss the two other necklace tutorials I put up this week. Here and here.

5 comments:

  1. I love them, they look great.

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  2. This is super cute!! Going to add this to my project list!

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  3. I love that you made the ribbon interchangeable. So cute!

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  4. I love it! You made it seem so easy... I just may have to give it a try!

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