How To Make A Handmade Glass Bead Necklace: Jewelry Tutorial

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To make the lampwork bead necklace you need three lampwork beads. These are oval lampwork beads.
The size is 15 millimeters by 30 millimeters. Then you'll need 16 round faceted beads.
These are peach, and they're eight millimeters.
We have four faceted rondelles in black, six millimeters by ten millimeters.
Four faceted oval beads, also in black, eight millimeters by ten millimeters.
And four faceted rondelles that are a little bit smaller than the other ones. They are five millimeters by eight millimeters, also in black.
We've got some seed beads here. These are size 15
Delica seed beads, and they're kind of a black oil-slick, fire-polished color.
For bead-stringing wire, we're using 19-strand bead stringing wire in gold. You can see the gold finish here.
And then we have crimp beads. We're using #1 size crimp beads, and we have two of them.
But we've got them in a little tube because otherwise, they'd be all over the place.
Then we've got two clamshell bead tips and gold, and a toggle clasp also in gold.
Then we have a Bead Bug and this is optional. For tools, we have chain-nose pliers and wire cutters.
To get started,
we're gonna figure out the design of our necklace by laying out our beads in a pattern.
And we like to start with a focal bead first, which is this beautiful lampwork bead.
And when we picked out these colors,
we actually took the lampwork bead around the bead show with us and picked out these gorgeous peach beads and these black beads.
Just because we thought they'd look beautiful with that color. So I'm going to just lay out
the peach bead next because I like it right next to that
lampwork bead, and then I'm just gonna make a little pattern using the peach beads.
I think we'll do a peach bead in between each of our black beads.
And I think we'll do one of each of these black beads. And I think what we start with this smaller one,
a small rondelle between those two peach beads.
Then we'll do this oval bead, and we chose the oval because it kind of mimics the oval shape of this lampwork bead, but in
a smaller size. And then we'll do our large faceted rondelle next.
So on our necklace, we're just going to do the same order and repeat it
using all of the rest of the beads. So we can just leave that pattern there and
it helps make the bead stringing go faster to have it laid out. And you can just leave that there and
keep beading until you get to that last part and then put that on. In between each of these beads,
we're gonna put three of our Delica beads.
And that's going to create give it a little bit of space between the beads and add a little shine and color.
We went ahead and cut a 20 inch piece of our bead-stringing wire, and
I'm gonna take a Bead Bug and put a Bead Bug at the end of the bead-stringing wire.
If you don't have a Bead Bug,
it basically is going to keep the beads from sliding off,
you could take a piece of masking tape and just fold it over at one end of your bead-stringing wire.
Then I'm gonna take the other end of my bead-stringing wire, and I'm gonna start beading.
So we'll start with our Delica beads.
And we're going to put three Delica between each of our beads. And I like to put them in the palm of my hand.
I think it's easier to work with them that way, and you can just fish the Delicas onto the bead-stringing wire
kind of by tipping them on to the wire. So there are three Delicas.
And then we're just going to follow our pattern by looking up here,
so I'm gonna start with this left-hand bead, which is our peach bead and
feed that on and
then again, we'll do three Delicas.
And this is going to be our pattern throughout, including these Delicas in between
each of our beads, and what that does is it's gonna give a little bit of space between the beads,
and also it's gonna add a lot of shine, which I think is really nice.
Let that slide down, then we'll do our large black rondelle and
three more Delicas.
We chose Delica beads instead of regular round seed beads because we like the way they're cut. They sit right next to each other.
They almost look like a bugle bead, which we just think is interesting. So that was our large rondelle.
So now we do another peach bead
followed by three more Delicas.
We like the finish of the Delica beads
too because it really does look a little bit like an oil slick.
Or it's got a little bit of green and a little bit of purple. So now let's see where we are. We're here,
we're gonna do our oval bead. I call it it torpedo bead but really it's an oval bead.
Then three more Delicas. Oops, I only have two in my hand, so I'll grab a couple more here.
There we go.
Followed by another peach bead.
Once you get the pattern going it'll go very quickly.
It's one of the things we love about bead stringing is once you figure out what your design is,
you really just string all the beads in that order, and it's as simple as that.
We'll do our small rondelle next and
then three more Delicas.
And I'm going to look and see where we are.
So this is reversed. I'm going to reverse it so you can see it.
So this is how our beads are looking so far. So now we just have our lampwork bead, and we're ready to repeat or pattern.
So I'm going to put my lampwork bead on,
then three more Delicas.
And
then I'm just going to continue this pattern
looking up here again until
all the beads and all the Delicas are on my bead-stringing wire.
Then I'll show you how to put on the clasp.
I finished stringing all the beads onto my bead-stringing wire and now I'm ready to show you how to finish the ends.
And to do that, I'm going to start with the end that doesn't have the Bead Bug on it.
And I'm going to take my clamshell bead tip, one of my clamshell bead tips.
I'm trying to show you this here: so the clamshell bead tip is
basically, like a little clam like it sounds, and
it's got a hole in the bottom and
then a loop at the top, and I'll show you what all of that does for us.
I'm going to take the end of my bead-stringing wire and feed it up through the tiny hole in the bottom of the clamshell
bead tip. And I'm just going to let that fall down
against my beads. And then I'm going to take one of my teeny tiny crimp beads and
feed it on to the bead-stringing wire like that.
And I'm not going to let that fall all the way to the end this time.
I'm going to just hold it out there toward the end, and I'm going to use my
chain-nose pliers. I'm going to go ahead and crimp that crimp bead
onto my bead-stringing wire, and what that's going to do is that's going to hold
my clamshell bead tip in place and not let the beads slide off.
And it's just a nice way to finish the ends. So
I'm going to go ahead and use my wire cutters to trim the wire right next to that
crimp bead where I crimped it.
And now what I can do is take the clamshell bead tip and slide it up over that crimp bead, and what's going
to happen now is that crimp bead is gonna be hidden inside
the clamshell bead tip.
I'll
close the clamshell bead tip using my chain-nose pliers, and
when you close one of these, you want to close it gently because it's hollow.
So just give it a nice gentle squeeze. You don't want to press too hard because you can end up denting
the little side, so just give it a gentle squeeze.
It'll bend really easily so you don't have to use much elbow grease for that.
Now I'm going to take one side of my toggle clasp,
and I'm gonna slide it onto the open loop that's on my clamshell bead tip like that.
And now I can use my chain-nose pliers or my round-nose pliers either one to rotate
the little loop closed. And if you're worried about this coming open while you're wearing your necklace,
you can add a little dab of glue there. You can use jeweler's glue. We've never really had any trouble with that,
but if you're worried about it, you can do that. Now we're going to do the same thing on the other end.
So I'm just gonna slide all my beads down
to the other end.
Then I'm going to take the end of my bead stringing wire and
do what I just did, which is feed
the end of the bead stringing wire up through the clamshell bead tip. Let it fall down by the beads.
I'm going to take my crimp bead and
feed it on and
this time I am gonna slide it all the way down to where my beads are
because I want to crimp it as close to my beads as possible.
So now what I want to do is crimp that bead inside my clamshell bead tip and to do that
I think it helps to hold on to the bead stringing wire and
then grab your
chain-nose pliers and then just reach in with the tips of your chain-nose pliers to
crimp the crimp bead. It's a little bit tricky because you're working in tight quarters.
But just make sure you've got it nice and crimped on there.
Then you can use your wire cutters to reach in and
trim that piece of wire.
Just be careful not to cut your clamshell bead tip while you're doing that. Like that.
And
now I can use my chain-nose pliers to gently press
my clamshell bead tip closed just like I did on the other side.
And
then I can feed the other side of my toggle clasp onto that open loop and
use my chain-nose pliers to rotate that loop
closed.
Just like that.
Easy.
And now we can just close our
clasp together here and
there we have a beautiful handmade glass bead necklace.

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How To Make A Handmade Glass Bead Necklace: Jewelry Tutorial

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