How To Make A Necklace With A Button
Making a necklace with a pretty button, beading wire, and seed beads is easier than one, two, and three! For this project, I will make a blue necklace and a matching bracelet, which is part of a series of Hubs I am making on how to create your own jewelry. The other day I went to Joann's Fabrics, one of my favorite stores, and I ended up spotting a beautiful button that would make a nice pendant on a necklace. Any bobble, finding, or trinket that looks pretty can be incorporated into a piece of homemade jewelry if you take the time and patience to figure out how to make it work. When I first started making this necklace I pondered how to keep the button/pendant from bobbling around on the chain, but then I discovered I could hold it in place with two larger acrylic beads. Keep reading to find out how to make this beautiful, fun, and simple necklace. At the end, I will include instructions for inspiration on how to create a matching bracelet.
Step One: Cutting The Beading Wire
Trim a piece of beading wire that is approximately fourteen to sixteen inches. This will be a shorter necklace, so I cut off a few extra inches to leave enough room for tying the necklace off at the end.
Step Two: Slip the Bead On The Wire
Luckily this button had a hole on the back, which made it easy to put on the beading wire. Try to find a button similar to this one if you decide to add buttons to a necklace.
Step Three: Use Two Large Acrylic Beads To Hold The Button In Place.
Buttons are secured to a shirt with a thread and needle, but on a necklace, two larger beads are needed to keep the button from wobbling about. I decided to use two large clear acrylic beads because this is what I had on hand, but you can use any type of bead, so long as these beads are large enough to keep the button in place.
Step Four: Start Adding The Seed Beads.
Add glass beads to each side of the necklace. Keep doing this until you reach the top of the necklace. The glass beads I am using for this project are from the Czech Republic, which is renowned for making exquisite crystal beads. At least these are higher quality than some of the other crystal and glass beads at the crafting stores but use whatever type of seed beads you prefer. Keep adding seed beads to each side of the necklace until reaching the top.
Step Five: Use Jewelry Pliers To Connect The Clasp
I used jewelry pliers to connect both ends of the beading wire to the necklace. All I did was make a loop on both ends and used the pliers to make these tight and secure. There are more complicated ways of attaching beading wire to a clasp, but I prefer this basic way and it works for me. Extra security can be added by placing a dab of jewelry glue on the loop where the wire is connected to the clasp.
The Finished Necklace
The Matching Bracelet
This looks like one bracelet, but it is actually two bracelets side by side! For the first bracelet I simply put blue seed beads on stretch magic and tied it off. One the second bracelet I surrounded four blue stone beads with seed bead, and these were also beaded onto a strand of stretch magic. Watch the video I made below for more tips on how to make a matching bracelet. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have fun making your own simple jewelry. Happy beading!
How To Make A Matching Bracelet
Would you ever make a necklace?
© 2008 SweetiePie