Make great beaded jewelry with just these 5 essential tools: a wire cutter, a chain nose plier, a round nose plier, blue tape and a TOWEL! These are the only tools you really need to make all kinds of necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Click here to review the 5 Essential Beading Tools Video
To make this beaded necklace project, you need:
- Enough beads to string 15.5 inches. I used 3 Lampwork beads and 4 Czech 6mm Bicone Crystals for my focal beads, and 6/0 Czech Seed Beads to complete each side. You can use whatever kinds of beads that appeal to you, but be careful to pick some with holes big enough to fit two thicknesses of the beading wire.
- A clasp. I used a 10mm Lobster Clasp with an attached jump ring. If you can find them, buy the ones that come with a Closed Jump ring as that will make the attachment sturdier. I’ll include a link below.
- A 6mm Oval Open Jump ring
- 2 seamless crimp tubes, 2x2mm, often also marked as size “#2”.
- Stainless steel stranded beading wire with a nylon coating. I used 19 Strand, .014″ diameter. You need 20 inches for this project.
- Chain: I used silver chain with loops that are 7mm x 5mm, 3 inches.
Source for some of the bead types I used
There must be a bazillion different beads in the world, and you've got to enjoy the freedom of being able to pick what sparks your creativity. I thought I would link a couple of categories of beads that I used in my video, though. This is a collection of 6mm Crystal Bicone beads in a bunch of colors. These are the bead that I show as spacers between my three lampwork beads.
The sides of this necklace is strung with 6/0 Seed Beads. You can buy really inexpensive seed beads in this size (6/0), but I recommend looking for beads that were made in the Czech Republic because they are the most uniformly sized and shaped seed beads on the market. This link takes you to the color I used, but it also offers about 30 other colors and finishes in this same size.
Source for findings I used
Note that you can make your necklace using any type of finding material. Common choices are Sterling Silver or Gold Filled findings for ‘artist level’ pieces (similar to what you might find at an Art Fair), but if you want to economize while you are learning to make beaded jewelry, Silver-plated or Gold-plated findings are also fine to use. An eco- and budget-conscious choice is to source some of your beads and findings from Thrift Store jewelry finds, then buy just the items that are hard to locate, like the Crimp Tubes.
In the video, I am using Sterling Silver findings, so I will link those items here. See below for suggestions for similar plated findings, but please be aware that ALL plated findings (no matter who manufactures them) will eventually have the plating wear off, and they will revert to the underlying ‘base metal’ color (which usually can be dull silver-ish to brassy).
Sterling Silver Lobster Claw clasps come with a 4mm Closed ring at the base of the clasp and a 5mm Closed ring for use on the other end of your necklace (if you are not using extender chain). These are perfect when you are making new jewelry, but if you are repairing or retrofitting existing jewelry, look for similar clasps that come with Open rings.
Note that in the picture, if you zoom in, you can see that they are stamped '925' on the flat hinge piece (the part that opens). '925' in the jewelry industry means that the item was made with solid 92.5% Fine Silver alloyed with 7.5% other metals (for durability).
If you are repairing jewelry that was made with Sterling Silver components, as I am demonstrating in the video, you may want to use Sterling Silver replacement parts. This set includes three common sizes of oval jump rings: 8x6mm, 6x5mm and 5x4mm (10 rings in each size). In the video, I was using the medium size.
These 2mm seamless crimp tubes are made from Sterling Silver. This package of 30 pieces is enough to last through 15 projects if you use two crimps for each necklace like I do in the video.
This beading wire from Beadalon is a great product that I've been using for over 20 years. I'm sending you to the 19 strand, nylon coated beading material in the .015 inch (medium thickness) variety. Be sure to look at the options, though: it comes in other colors, other thicknesses, and in 7 strand (perfectly good economy, but a little stiffer) and in 49 strand (more expensive, but it's more flexible and 'drapey'). You get 30 feet on a spool, which will last you through a lot of necklaces or bracelets.
This Sterling Silver (925) chain is made in Italy. It has links that are a perfect size for making necklace extenders: 11.4 x 4.2mm, and has a material thickness of 1mm. It is sold in lengths of 3 feet.
Source list for Plated Findings
If you’d rather use Plated Findings for your project, please visit my list of Economy Beading Supply choices. You can also find suggestions for economical beading stringing wire in that post. The article covers silver-plated, gold-plated, gunmetal (black plated) findings and more.
Table of Contents
Looking for other Necklace related articles? Try: Necklace Too Short? What to Do to Adjust the Length.
