Multi Strand Wood Bead Necklace

Sometimes I like to challenge myself. Just for fun. So when I looked for jewelry making supplies for this post I decided to use items that I haven’t seen used on the blog before. And most importantly, items I’d never used before.

And this Wood Bead Multi Strand Necklace is what I came up with.

Supplies:

• Big Value Printed Wood Beads-Barrel-16x16mm
• Value Pack Wood Beads-Barrel-Printed-9mm
• Wood Beads-Round-Assorted Colors-Small
• Wood Beads-Round-Assorted Natural/Tan
• 19 Strand Beadalon® Wire-Gold-.018
• Toggle Clasp-Rope/Knot-Gold-15mm
• Twister Bead™ Strands-Round-Black-4 mm
• 1.3 mm Crimp Beads – Gold – 1 gram
• Wire Cutters
• Crimp Tool

 Directions:

Dump all of the beads into  shoe box lid or other shallow, flat container.

Remove all of the lightest color wood beads.

Cut the Beadalon wire to a length of 108 inches.

You may want to cut it even longer if you want to make a fuller necklace.

Attach one end of the toggle clasp with a crimp bead and add 4-6 small, black, twister beads.

Continue adding beads randomly until the necklace is as long as you’d like. Before adding the second half of the closure add 1-2 inches of beads as the necklace will “shrink” a bit. This way it will still end up being close to the length you originally wanted.

Make sure the last 4-6 beads are the small, black twister beads.

Add the second half of the closure and thread the wire back into the first row of beads. Do not crimp the wire at this point.

Continue to randomly add beads while occasionally working the bead wire through 3-5 beads from the first row. Continue weaving the second row in and out down to the beginning end.

Work the bead wire over the toggle and back through the second row of beads.

Always make sure to use the small, black beads on the ends to keep from adding too much bulk to the ends of the necklace. Add a third and/or fourth row following the random beading and weaving the new rows into the previous rows.

I found it easier to lay the wire I’m working with alongside the base row to figure out where I wanted to weave into and how many beads to use to keep the wire from becoming too loose. You want some space between the rows of beads but not so much that the beads stick far out from the necklace.

Once you’ve gotten the necklace as full as you like, crimp the end of the bead wire to one of the toggle clasp halves and work the tail of the wire into the beads.

I really like the way this turned out. It has a very tribal, earthy vibe to it. I keep hearing that “tribal” is going to be big this summer and you’ll be right on trend with a necklace like this!