Distracted by Shiny Objects

There are a few projects kicking around that I have long been meaning to take care of, and this is one of them. About a year ago (!) I was traveling and bought 3 strands of red coral beads that I intended to turn into a multi-strand necklace. I've been wanting a coral red necklace for a while to wear with my more neutral office clothes. Mom bought me a chunky single-strand one for Christmas a couple of years ago and I do wear it, but I wanted something multi-strand, which is rather expensive in that red coral look that I want. Therefore, I thought that DIY was a good option. Recently, I also purchased some strands of stick pearls at The Big Flea (a giant twice yearly flea market at the Dulles Expo center) and I wanted to do something multi-strand with them as well.

While I was shopping at JoAnn's recently for sewing supplies I realized there was a ton of beading stuff there too, so I armed myself with clasps, crimp beads, and stringing wire. I started out with the red beds. There were two different sizes and I had enough of the smaller beads to do a whole strand, but not enough of the larger, so I settled on a shorter strand of the small size and a longer strand alternating the larger and smaller beads.

Mom and I used to make necklaces and other beading projects together when I was younger, but that was probably in the mid nineties (yikes). So I turned to YouTube for some tutorials for multi-strand necklaces. While none of them really addressed exactly what I wanted, I got enough ideas to get started. I began by putting one crimp bead and one necklace bead on a strand of wire. I didn't cut the wire to length yet, I just worked with it on the spool. Next, I took my lobster claw clasp and put the end of the wire through it, leaving about an inch tail. I then worked the tail down through the bead and through the crimp bead. Here it is with the pearls I used later.

Next you pull the tail as taut as you can and then crimp the crimp bead with either pinch-nosed pliers or a bead crimper until the wires don't move anymore. With the end secure, you're almost ready to start beading (aka the fun part). At this point, I measured from the end of the first bead making a necklace of 16 inches and left an additional 2 inches of wire for the fastening process at the end, since you can always snip it shorter when the time comes. So I cut the wire off at a total of 18 inches. For the red necklace I did the strand with the small beads first , but I don't really think it matters which strand goes first. I also recommend you do this at night, in the worst light you can find, with no hard surface to work on...oh, wait, no, that's just what I did. Once you're done stringing, you just carry out the first fastening steps again by looping the wire through the fastener loop and then putting it back through one bead and the crimp bead. Here it is with the pearls again:

It's a little more difficult the second time with the other end of the wire occupied by all the beads, but it's still not too bad. After crimping the crimp bead down, you can either snip off the remaining wire or tuck it into the neighboring beads. Your first strand is now done! You can just repeat these steps to attach the second strand to the fasteners. Just be sure to attach the second strand both on the outside or both on the inside of the other strands. I made my second strand 2 inches longer than the first one and it seems to have worked out well. Here is the finished red necklace.

Next I repeated the process with the stick pearls. They are long and skinny and were much more difficult to work with because of the size of the holes drilled in them. The openings were so small that I had to try multiple beads for the end beads because it was so difficult to get the wire to go through the hole twice. There was definitely a lot more blood, sweat, and tears involved in the second necklace, so if you're considering a project like this, it would behoove you to check out how big the holes are drilled in any given beads you want to use, just to avoid problems down the line. 

I had a few beads left over when I was done, so I went out and grabbed some earring hooks and bead holders. I got two different accent beads to go more with black and more with browns. I had a hard time deciding on beads to go with the pearls, but I ended up with a faceted crystal kind in a color they are calling "smoke" and a bronze freshwater pearl. For this type of earring, you just put the beads on the post and then loop the top of the post around the earring hook with pliers and bend the end around the post. 

Bending the end around itself is not the most fun and easy task, but so long as both sides basically look the same, I don't think it's too worthwhile to stress out about making it look too perfect. Or maybe I've just stopped sweating the small stuff after and earthquake and 2 hurricanes. So here is the set with the crystal beads together with the necklace. Forgive me for omitting my face, but my current case of pink eye does not make it easy to apply makeup or easy to look normal at all really.

And here's a look at the other pair with the brown pearls. I got a lot of, um, help from Watson during these projects, who contributed by chasing the string the beads came on, batting the beads around, attacking the stringing wire, and generally sticking his paws in where they didn't belong. Exhibits A & B as I was trying to photograph these earrings:

Here are what the look like without any feline interference:

Overall this was a fun and not very time-consuming project that netted me 2 necklaces and 2 sets of earrings so far. I may go back and make red earrings if the mood strikes. Next time you can't find jewelry you like in your price range, think about making your own!