How to: Tropical layered glass trade bead necklace
December 3rd, 2009 by Ava ArieI fell in love with this necklace from Elva Fields…
… but cannot afford to pay over $300.00 for it. :C
So I tried making my own version for less than $30.00!
This is how:
I found these beautiful beads and gold coated crimp beads. I was going to do all the bead strands in that green, but these sand coloured beads were too beautiful to put down!
Let’s start beading!
At each end, there were five crimp beads so that the clasp wouldn’t be crowded by the larger glass trade beads. The length was not premeasured on my neck like I usually would for a single-stranded necklace. This is because the seven strands would cluster and make the necklace seem shorter. So all the strands were beaded, and then crimped at only one end (Remember to leave some room in the loop for the strands to move around on!). Afterward, I took the necklace and tried the length out on my neck.
Alright! Once the length was adjusted, the other end was crimped around the other clasp (They don’t have to be clasped in the same order). All the strands were made to exactly the same length for that clustering effect.
All finished!
It’s fun searching around for things to pin onto the necklace with a safety pin.You can change the look of the necklace in so many different ways by pinning different things to it.
Doesn’t this look perfect for a day at the beach?
~Ava Arie