Single strand necklace
Siyo, oginalii! In this post I will show you how I make a very easy single strand beaded necklace. This project is super easy—even children can make these! This is also my first blog post, so please bear with me while I figure out formatting, etc. I plan to continue this blog with projects that vary in difficulty, so stayed tuned! But first, I wanted to start with something so simple anyone could do it. Happy beading, friend!
You can choose to keep these very simple by just using seed beads like the image above or add embellishments such as corn beads or metal charms, beads, or other neat findings making this project very customizable. Let’s talk supplies & things you’ll need.
Seed beads (I prefer czech pony beads, 8/0 or 6/0 for this type of single strand necklace — they are large enough that you will not need a needle)
Beading thread, illusion cord, or artificial sinew
Optional: corn beads, metallic beads, charms, special finding
If you feel confident that you have these supplies or know where to find these things, feel free to jump to the tutorial below. If you’re not sure where to find these types of supplies or what you need, keep reading to get my tips on where to find your supplies.
First & foremost, I think the most important thing is to consider your project goal, what you are making it for, and what kind of access and money you want to spend on supplies. I always recommend shopping local & native owned if & whenever possible; however, depending on where you are, what kind of income you have, and if you are making something for yourself or a gift—I am not here to say where to buy things, this is not sponsored in any way. My main priority is telling people to make what they feel they can. I’ll get off this soap box and start explaining where to find things now.
Pony beads & seed beads are made in various ways & have different cuts & sizes. Typically speaking, the cheaper the bead you purchase, the less likely it is to have been made in a way that allows for consistent sizing. This means more time culling out beads that are weird (super big, small, or sometimes stuck to another bead, or otherwise compromised.) You can find seed beads at many big box stores like Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc. However, it’s likely beads (especially from Walmart) are going to be inconsistent in size so, just be aware of that. This is admittedly, less important on a project like this but would not be recommended for some of the more advanced beadwork that I do. For this tutorial, I’ll be using sale Hobby Lobby beads, illusion cord from my local Wal-Mart, & corn beads from Light Eyes Beads in Park Hill, OK.
For this size bead, I have purchased from Light Eyes Beads (my fav, located within CN of Oklahoma), Crazy Crow, Michael's, & even Hobby Lobby at times (if I was desperate & depending on where I was living at the time. I try not to buy from them if I’m honest, but once again, I’d rather you buy up all their beads on sale than not create if that’s the access you have! But seriously, wait for a sale because they have them all the time & you can get twice as many colors when they are half off!) There are lots of other beading supply places I plan to blog about in the future that I use for my custom more complex work, but that’s for another day, oginalii.
When selecting colors, I always think it’s good to go with black, white, red, orange, yellow (fire colors). If it’s within your budget, green, blue, & purple onto that also gives you the option for rainbow. Pink & teal in addition to that gives you a pretty wide range of options to work with. On the higher end of options I’ve talked about above, we are talking maybe $4-6 per color which will give you more than one necklace. If you go to big box stores while on sale, you can also potentially be talking about $2-3 per color here. If there is no budget, the more shades you can get the better, IMO hehe. But, maybe I’m a bead addict too.
While many thread options you may have on hand would likely work for this project, do not use sewing thread, because it’s just super easy to break. I like using illusion cord in this size from Walmart. I normally always have Fireline thread because I do all kinds of beadwork, so I have used it before on these, but it’s more expensive & usually what I use with smaller size beads. It’s thermally bonded & withstand multiple pounds of pressure, so not likely to snap easily. Whimsy House of Beads usually has Fireline thread cheaper than most places I’ve shopped & is also a great Native owned shop within CN of Oklahoma. You can use artificial sinew if you happen to have that on hand as well, although it can be more difficult because the threads can seperate.
Now! Putting together your necklace.
Cut your cord approximately 36” in length. This will give you more than enough to work with. First we’ll start by adding a stop bead to our thread. This bead will simply act to hold our beads onto the thread while we work, so if you can, use a bead (color or shape) that you can identify easily as the one that you want to remove once we get everything strung on.
I’m going to use my white bead as a stop because my pattern will be corn bead, turquoise, black, red, orange, yellow, white, yellow, orange, red, black, turquoise, repeat! This means by the time I’m done, I will recognize the white bead as the one I need to remove from my pattern.
To string your stop bead, pick up one bead & slide the bead near the end of the thread and pass the thread back through the bead from the tail end, forming a loop. Pull the loop tight around your stop bead, leaving an inch or two for you to grab & tie when we get done & remove the stop bead.
Now we can start stringing the pattern we want to make. I’ll be using 6 different colors of 8/0 seed beads & corn beads. The corn beads I purchased from Light Eyes in Tahlequah ($3 per 50 corn beads.) However, you can also make these without the corn beads like the first picture of this tutorial.
Start by stringing one corn bead or accent bead, 7 turquoise (or main color), one black, one red, one orange, one yellow, one white, one yellow, one orange, one red, one black, & 7 turquoise beads again.
Also, you can use an ice cube tray from Walmart or Dollar tree to pour the beads you are working with into to make it easier to string them faster.
I repeated my pattern 13 times—and this is much easier though not impossible to keep track of when you have an accent bead like my corn beads. Just keep threading until you’re getting close to the end of your string, & when I got to 13 corn beads, it was about the full length. Your necklace needs to be at least 26-28” to comfortably go over most people’s heads without additional hardware (the average head is about 23” circumference, but I find that 28” to 32” inches is a nice length for most wearers. You really have some wiggle room here.) My example here is about 32” total.
Once you are happy with your length, we are going to remove our stop bead by untying the loop we first made. You can likely achieve this by simply grabbing the white bead & pulling gently off your string.
Now, simply tie the ends together using a regular knot. I like to tie three to four knots to ensure the necklace is secure.
Now that you have your knot tied at least three times, cut the tails of your string.
And there you have it! You are now the proud owner of a single strand beaded necklace!
I’ve made these as stand alone simple & affordable beadwork for festivals, with various corn or metal accent beads, & as chains for beaded rosettes that I’ve made. While I’m a big fan of fire or rainbow patterns, you can come up with any kind of color combinations depending on your taste & style. Here are some examples of other single strand beaded necklaces that I’ve made! I’ve utilized corn beads, metal beads, ceramic beads, etc. It’s really up to you & your eye for design!
Wado so much for reading my tutorial! Please stay tuned for other projects & DIY’s!
-Seli