About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 2h00

multi-stranded pearl necklace with black agate
I forgot to take pictures when I made this, but I will try to sketch the steps.
This piece was inspired by a necklace I had seen on a homeshopping channel. They sold a similar one (made from semiprecious stones) for over 60 EUR. I liked the look and thought... hey... you can DIY!

Don't worry about those 2 hours on the left... It won't take that long if you don't knot your pearl strands...

Published 8th February 2009

Print • Embed

julietierney14 added Multi Stranded Pearl Necklace to Jewelry Making 19 Nov 05:34
julietierney14 favorited Multi Stranded Pearl Necklace 19 Nov 05:34
Carla favorited Multi Stranded Pearl Necklace 21 Aug 17:11
Tierney R. favorited Multi Stranded Pearl Necklace 17 Oct 07:19

Step 1
Gather all your materials and tools.

I'm not good at drawing - sorry, this thing that looks lika a banana are tweezers...
Step 2
Prepare your connecting elements for connecting.
I used drilled donuts (black agate), therefore I needed 2 headpins per elements.
Make wrapped loops to the outside (for those who need it - a nice how-to about wrapped loops can be found here:

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/wire_wrap_it_tutorial

thank you zoë for this detailed tutorial!)

If you use other forms you can use a piece of silver/copper wire and make a wrapped loop on both sides.
Step 3
Now comes the most difficult part: knot your pearl strands.
You do not have to do that, you can simply string them on the thread as well, but I like the smooth fall of knotted strands.

Start your strand by a simple knot, then add your first bead.
Make a loose knot and place your needle in the loop. Using your fingers and the needle pull the knot strongly against the bead. Still pulling try to pull the needle out of the knot.
Take your tweezers an push the knot as strong againgst the bead as you can.
Then add the next bead. Here you can push your knot once again if you think it's still a bit to loose.
This knotting requires a bit of practice. (If you don't want to use a needle you could also try a knotting tool. They are available in several online beading shops - I have one and I love it).
After your last bead make your last knot.

For my design I made 3 strands:
the one around the neck is 40 cm long the others 31cm and 38cm
Step 4
Now that your strands are all finished we must connect them to our donuts.

For this I used small crimp tubes and special crimp pliers (flat nose pliers will do as well).

Place the crimp bead on the thread pull it through the wrapped loop of the donut and then again through the crimp bead. Then pull until it is all close together.
Then you can crimp and trim the excess thread.

Repeat these steps to link all three strands to the connecting elements
Step 5
After trimming the thread I covered my crimps with crimp cover beads. This is an optional step.

Crimp covers are open beads that are put on the crimped crimp bead and then closed by pushing (depending on the material you can use your fingers to close them or some pliers - I recommend nylon jaw pliers).
When they are closed they almost look like usual round bead.
Step 6
FINISHED!