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I love you to Pluto .... and back!
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I wrote about the inspiration behind this pendant in my blog post I love you to Pluto .... and back!. I also wrote that I would show you how I turned this pendant into a necklace. So ...... here goes!
1 Gather all your materials and tools.
I wanted the pendant to be the focus of the necklace so I chose materials that would compliment the colours within the pendant. I used a thick black suede as the stringing material and included some handmade blue beads to enhance the colours of Pluto. Now, my intention was that the blue beads would represent planets in the solar system of my necklace. To achieve this I made these beads using polymer clay mixed with acrylic paints, silver leaf and lots of swirling .... but I will leave this for another blog!
2 Stringing the pendant.
When I made the pendant I turned one of the craters into a stringing hole. I had a fairly good idea how I was going to make the necklace before I started so I made sure the hole was fairly large.
This pendant would look good as either a long or short necklace but I like mine long so I cut 19 inches of suede and strung it (equally) through the crater/hole. I know, you are thinking ..... mmmmm that is a VERY long necklace but I needed to ensure I had enough stringing material for knotting. It will all become very clear as you continue reading ......
I needed to give the pendant some stability before I strung on any beads so I tied a knot in the suede at the top of the pendant.
3 Stringing Beads!
I placed a knot in each thread at slightly different heights and threaded a bead onto each one. I had two smaller beads and thought these would look really good as two orbiting moons! I didn't want them crashing into one another which is why I slightly offset them. I placed a knot above each bead to keep them secure. I don't want them whizzing off into outer space .....
I placed a knot in the same place on each thread because I wanted the next set of beads to be in exactly the same place on the necklace. I threaded the beads and added another knot to keep them in place. They look like this ....
I didn't want to stop here .... I added another set of beads on top and finished them with a knot so they looked like this .......
ooops .... after the photograph ..... I added the knots on top of the beads to stop them moving around on the thread.
I placed the next two knots (one on each thread) at an equal distance from the set above and added one bead on each thread.
4 Finishing the necklace.
I cut each thread so that they were exactly the same length. I then took my cord ends (centre of the photograph) and placed one on each thread.
Then, very gently (using my pliers) I squeezed the cord ends together to meet in the middle and trap the thread ..... see photos ......
5 Adding open jump rings!
When I first started making my own jewellery I had a lot of trouble with these tricky little blighters until I read all about them in a magazine. My biggest mistake was to try and pull them apart to attach onto things like cord ends and I couldn't get them back together again without distorting the ring and leaving a huge gap. Well, I now know there is an easy way ..... all you need to do to open them is grip each side of the jump ring either side of the opening and slide one side forward and one side back ....easy when you know how! To close, all you need to do is the reverse and they slide together without leaving a gap!
I attached a large junp ring onto one cord end and a smaller jump ring onto the other. No, I haven't lost my marbles .... there is a method to my madness!
I attached the trigger clasp to the smaller jump ring and used the larger jump ring to attach to .... like this ....
6 A finished Necklace! ...... Hooray!
When I am at craft fairs a lot of people like my beads but don't really know what they can make with them or how to go about making jewellery so I hope I have given you a few ideas. My future blog posts will have some more ideas on what you can make using my glass beads.
I have also been asked what you could make using my Enchanted Tree Beads. I am thinking about writing a tutorial to share a few of my own ideas. Maybe my next blog post?
Sarah xx
Hypersmash.com
