Beaded Cab Necklace

After you bead around a cab, incorporate the cab into a finished piece of jewelry. Necklaces are one option, especially when dealing with large sized cabs.

You'll need:

a beaded cab
ultra suede
E6000 glue
beading wire
choice of matching & accent beads
crimp beads
crimping pliers
scissors
wire cutters
beading needle
nymo or silamide to match ultra suede
pencil

A number of options are available to you when designing your necklace. Length, type of beads, choice of clasp are some of the items you'll have to make decisions about. It all depends on personal preference. You can incorporate your preferences with the basic techniques I'm showing in my necklace.

1. Use scissors to carefully trim the interfacing around the cab leaving about 1/8th of an inch of interfacing. Be very careful not to accidentally cut any threads or beads.

2. Place the cab against the ultra suede, and use a pencil to trace around it.

3. Cut out the outline on the ultra suede, and double check it against your cab.

4. Cut 2 pieces beading wire the length you'd like the necklace plus 2 inches. In my case, I cut 2 pieces 26 inches long each.

5. Place the cab face down and squeeze a good layer of glue on the back.

6. Position your wire so both pieces are against the back of the cab and stuck in the glue. This is why you need the few extra inches of wire.

7. Now position your cut out piece of ultra suede over the back of the cab so the wire is covered.
8. Press the tow pieces firmly together, and push any lumps of glue down so the back is as smooth as possible.

9. Let dry for 24 hours before continuing.

After the glue has dried, you are ready to sew around the ultra suede and cab and string on your beads.

1. Thread your beading needle with thread to match your suede. This will help the stitches blend in.

2. Tie a knot on the end of your thread and bring the needle up and through some interfacing on the edge of your cab. This way you can hide the knot behind the suede.

3. Now whip stitch the interfacing and suede together moving all around the cab.

4. When you've gone completely around, finish with a few knots and thread the needle between the interfacing and suede.

5. Trim off the thread.

6. Now slip on your beads in the pattern of your choice. I used seed beads that matched my beaded cab and added 4mm tigers'-eye, 6mm gold stone, and some beaded beads.

7. To finish the ends of the necklace, slip on a crimp bead, and slip the end of the wire back down through the crimp. I also like to thread my wire through a few inches of beads.

8. Use crimping pliers to close the crimp beads.

9. Trim off excess wire.

10. I attached a clover clasp I made from copper wire. If you decide to use soldered jump rings or claps, you'll need to add them after you slip on the crimp bead but before you close up the crimp bead (described in step 8).

As I stated earlier, you have a number of options available when making this necklace. You can even add fringe. To do this, you will want to add fringe before you add your ultra suede to the back. Use the last row of beads around the cab (not including the ruffle) to attach the fringe. Then follow the basic fringe instructions I used in the Fringe Earrings 101 project.

All graphics created by Tammy Powley.

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