Chain & Bead Elegant Necklace
If you read my article about the book entitled Beaded Elegance, then you know how impressed I was with the beautiful designs described in the book. I finally got a chance to make my own Beaded Elegant Necklace using instructions I combined from a few of the projects in this book. I used AB jet Czech crystals and black Japanese seed beads to create this beautiful piece.
Though I can say I’m very happy with the results, I have to admit for my life style, this necklace is a little too fancy for every day wear. So, it got me to thinking about how I could make a similar necklace but tone it down a little so I could wear it almost anywhere. Thus was born my Chain and Bead Elegant Necklace.
To make one, you’ll need:
approx. 18 inches of gun metal chain
clasp
4 jump rings
12 4mm crystal beads
3 small tear drop crystal beads
12 eye pins
3 head pins (or more eye pins*)
wire cutters
round nosed pliers
bent or flat nosed pliers
*I didn’t have any gun metal colored head pins, so I used eye pins and squished (notice this highly technical term) the ends flat when I used them with the tear drop beads.
1. My chain already came with a clasp attached, so I cut two piece at both ends of the chain approx. 4 inches long and just kept the jump ring and clasp attached. If you don’t have these on your chain already, just add them after cutting the 2 pieces of4 inch chain. These will be the two ends of the necklace.
2. Next, I slipped a 4mm crystal bead onto a eye pin, bent the pin in an L shape, trimmed off all but about ½ inch of the pin, and curled it so it’s almost closed. (You can find more details about doing this in my
Loop Technique article.)
3. I repeated step two 11 more times to create a total of 12 beads on eye pins.
4. Once I had my beads ready, I cut 7 small pieces of chain with 11 links each.
5. Then I connected these small chain pieces together with the beads on the eye pins so I had a small necklace, just shy of 16 inches, with 8 beads on it.
6. To give it that elegant look, I added the fringe next. First, I created 3 piece of fringe: 2 the same size and one a little longer. I did this using small pieces of chain, 4 of the 4mm beads I already had ready to use, and then I added eye pins to 3 tear drop shaped crystal beads.
7. Finally, I added the fringe pieces by using a jump ring to connect the longest fringe piece to the middle link in between the two center beads of the necklace I completed in step five. The other two fringe pieces were connected in a similar fashion on either side of the middle fringe.
Most
Beading Suppliers will carry the beads, findings, and chain need for this project. You might even have some chain and beads in your stash to make a similar necklace. I like how mine turned out, and though it is still elegant, I would feel comfortable wearing this to the grocery store or out to dinner.
Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.
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