Tutorial: River of Pearls Necklace…or Bracelet

What is better than a beautiful, elegant, contemporary piece that can be dressed up or down? Not a whole heck of a lot. This simple piece displays beautiful asymmetry when worn on the neck, or a great mix of color on the wrist. For formal or casual, this is one of our more flexible designs.

Tools

• Chain Nose Pliers (or crimping pliers)

Supplies

• 16″ strand of pearls
• ~ 1 yard of leather (we used 1.5mm)
• Toggle clasp
• At least 18″-20″ of beading wire
• 2 crimps
• Glue

Directions

1. String the entire 16″ strand of pearls onto your beading wire.
2. At the end, slide on a crimp, and then one half of the toggle. Then, string back through the crimp to capture the toggle in a loop.
3. Pull the crimp tight next to the toggle.
4. Using a pair of chain nose pliers, flatten the crimp onto the wire. Make sure to crimp down tight!
5. If the pearls have a large enough hole to slip the tail through, slip it through a couple of beads. Our wire was too thick so we cut it off at the bottom of the crimp.
6. Repeat for the other side of the strand on the same toggle piece.
7. Before crimping the other side, make sure that the beads aren’t too tight on the string by laying it out. If they are too tight, making this round shape will feel very stiff. Once everything is were it needs to be, go ahead and crimp.
8. String on the other side of the toggle onto the leather and move it to the middle.
9. Tie an overhand knot at the base of the toggle.
10. Lay out the pearl strand the leather with the leather going through the bend of the pearls. We wanted the final length to be ~20″-21″ which would wrap around a wrist three times to fit ~7″ wrist. Measure your own and make adjustments to this length as necessary.
11. Tie an overhand knot where the pearl bend met the ends of the leather. The knot shouldn’t be too tight and the pearls should be able to move a little freely. Double check the length and make any adjustments.
12. Once the length is perfect and the knot is tight, glue the knot and cut off the ends after the glue has dried. We left the slightest tail for decorative and safety purposes.

Enjoy!