Week 9: Spring Necklace

 

One of my lovely girlfriends, who reminds me of all things coral, spring, and sunshine, is having a birthday soon.  I figured she could use something bright and fun to remind her of what she is to me. 

 

  The beads I chose for her necklace are sunny beach colours that remind me of her.  Secondly, because she's a preschool teacher I chose bead shapes that would enchant her children.  I know from experience that her young children will be fascinated by the "treasure," or "candy," around her neck.  Thirdly, I hunted down beads with relatively large holes because I love organza ribbons in necklaces, and because I struggled my way through small holed beads on a necklace I made last year. Not going through that again.

 Materials: Scissors, 3 meters of 1 cm wide organza ribbon. mixture of beads (I used 40).  I also bought 3 meters of fishing-line just in-case the ribbon wouldn't fit (I didn't end up using it).

Not pictured: half meter of 2 cm wide organza ribbon, and a yarn needle. 

 I laid all the beads out in three rows of different lengths.  I'm too neurotic to make a non-symmetrical necklace, so I made sure to have one extra bead as the center of each row.  The tangerine coloured beads are slightly pointed at one end, so I also made sure they were all pointing towards center (or away) as to not mess with the symmetry.

 LOVE those beads that look like marbles.

 Between each bead I tied a knot in the ribbon, to keep the beads in place.

 When I finished a row, I tied a knot, and then a second knot a few inches down. Then I started the next row. 

 So all three rows were attached in one long string. 

 Then I zig-zagged the rows back and forth with the spaces between the rows all pressed together. 

 Here's where I made the mistake of thinking I didn't need to try anything on before finishing (like every other project I've ever made).  When I tied all the ends together it turned out that I had one short strand, and two long strands, with nothing in the middle.  Sigh.  Time to tear apart the last strand of the necklace and remove some beads to shorten it.  

Note: If you, unlike me, like to measure twice and cut once (you planners, you) maybe buy more ribbon than you need, and string each strand separately. Start with the center beads, and leave three inches of ribbon on each end so that you can adjust the lengths there instead of having to untie all of your knots.  Grr. 

 Anyway... once your strands are all the perfect length, tie a tight knot around the ends on one side with your thicker ribbon.  Stand in front of a mirror to decide how long the necklace should be.  Unless you're adding some sort of clasp, don't forget that it needs to be long enough to pull over your head.  Tie another tight knot around the other three ends.  

Cut the ends off leaving about half an inch. 

 

Ta-Daaa!  

Happy Birthday Nikki!  Your gift is coming just a little late.