Shades of Blue Necklace

It’s easy to find inspiration in the emerging beauty of spring, and it’s fun to think of all the colorful creations you can whip up with a little bit of effort and a few materials! Let’s get started on a spring jewelry project you’re sure to enjoy.

Round up your usual materials: Beading wire, crimp beads, 3-strand clasp, crimping pliers, chain-nose pliers, wire cutters or a nail clipper (for snipping), and your beads: blue glass beads in both a light and a dark shade, and a couple of different shapes and sizes. You’ll also need several Swarovski crystals — maybe 12-20; you can mix up the sizes and shapes, as long as they are the same color.

This project will be a three strand floating design, so you’ll want to figure out how long you want your necklace to be. For floating designs, I like my necklaces to be shorter. Lay out your beads on your design board in the order you’d like to see them in on your necklace. Be sure to space out your light and dark blue beads well for balance. Intersperse your crystals well with the glass beads, too.

With this three strand design you can opt for strands of varying lengths (usually increasing in length from shortest to longest) or you can go for strands of equal lengths. Sometimes I just figure it out as I go along, and this necklace seemed to be (oddly!) a mixture of the two options.

Once you’ve cut your beading wire, thread your three strands through the clasp (you can thread and work on one strand at a time, if it’s easier). Spacing is everything with this design. If it helps, you can measure the distance between each bead. I’ve done that before, and it’s a bit of a headache, so now I usually just measure visually (it’s probably less precise, but it usually still turns out okay). You’ll also want each strand to look different from the other strands. For example, one strand may have more dark blue beads than another strand, while another strand has a few more crystals. You get the idea. If you’re in the mood, you can even vary the spacing between beads on each strand.

Once you’ve determined the spacing you’ll want between the beads on all your strands, you’ll begin adding your beads onto the strands. Add a crimp bead, a glass bead or crystal, then another crimp bead. Once you calculate your spacing, you’ll add another crimp bead, glass bead or crystal, then another crimp bead. This pattern will continue on till you reach the end of your strands, then you’ll thread the ends of your wire through the other half of your clasp. You can vary this look by adding beads of a different color, or trying a combination of two or three colors. Enjoy!

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