How to String a Crystal Bead Necklace

The easiest way to get started making jewelry is with bead stringing, and it's easy to make a beautiful expensive looking necklace by using crystal beads. The nice thing is that once you have mastered this basic skill, you can find combinations of all kinds of crystal beads to make an almost limitless variety of necklaces and bracelets.

1. To start stringing a beaded necklace first acquire some basic parts.

    

2. Start with a spring ring which is a kind of clasp.
3. Attach an extender which will be used with the spring ring.
   • This extender allows making a necklace up to 2 inches longer.
   • Also needed are two clam shells which will be used to hide the finished end.
4. Then crimp beads. These are placed at the end of the wire or string, and then just pinched with chain nose pliers to finish.
5. Finally, jump rings. They have a slight gap in them and are used when connecting different parts together.
6. To start the wired necklace, take the wire and pass it through the bottom part of the clam shell.
7. Next, put on a crimp bead. With the crimp bead about 2 inches from the end of the wire, take the chain nose pliers and crimp the bead.
8. Next, pass the wire back through the same hole. When doing this, the crimp bead is not exposed so it can be hidden. Close the clam shell now using the chain nose pliers so that the crimp bead is completely hidden.
9. Next, take the spring ring and place it onto the hook part. Then bend down the edge of the hook.
10. Now start putting on the beads.
11. There are two strings of wire, and make sure when putting on the beads to put both wires through the beads.
    • Looking closely, only the sterling silver parts can be seen, not any portion of the wire.
12. To start stringing, first put on 2 seed beads, then put one 4mm Crystal clear Swarovski bead.
13. Repeat this same process a total of 21 times.
    • This necklace is 14 to 16 inches long for a little girl but more beads can be added to make a longer necklace.
14. Add seed beads then 1 clear Swarovski, 2 seed beads then 1 clear Swarovski…
15. When putting the wires through the beads, make sure that both wires are going through the beads.
16. Now slide the beads down both wires.
    • Now the short wire has become completely concealed inside the beads.
    • When sliding the beads down they completely cover the end of the short wire so that there is only one wire left.
17. So now just repeat until there are a total of 21 clear Swarovski beads on the string.
18. Finish the process by putting on 2 seed beads.
19. Now move on to create the center piece of the necklace.
20. Change the color here and make the center part with 2 different colored Swarovski beads. Using 2 different shade color beads will make the color flow nicely.
    • First one light rose Swarovski bead and 2 seed beads, then use a fuchsia colored Swarovski bead, which make a nice focal point, then 2 seed beads.
    • Next a light rose Swarovski, and 2 seed beads.
      • And with that the necklace is half finished.
21. Now put on the center piece of the necklace which is a Swarovski crystal in the shape of a flower.
22. To put the flower on the necklace, use both the round nose pliers and the chain nose pliers.
23. Using these two tools, open a jump ring and attach the flower shaped crystal bead.
24. To open jump rings, hold both pliers in each hand and grab the jump ring right next to the gap. Then, open not pulling side ways, but by twisting up and twisting down at the same time. If opening a jump ring by pulling side ways, it may change the ring shape and it won’t close very well when closing it.
25. After putting the flower piece on, use both pliers to grab both sides of the ring near the gap, and turn it to return the ring to the original position before having opened it.
    • Now it can be closed in a way that looks very nice and professional.
26. Now take the wire and pass it through the ring.
27. Next, just like a while ago, put on two seed beads, then a light colored Swarovski bead, then two more seed beads, then a fuscia Swarovski bead, then again two more seed beads, and then a light rose Swarovski bead. That will complete the middle part of the necklace.
28. Next, in the same way as the first half of the necklace, put on two seed beads, then a Swarovski crystal bead. Go ahead and repeat this same pattern 21 times and then go on to the next step.
29. Now just like with the first half, repeat the pattern 21 times for the remaining half.
30. Now move on to the last part and finish the wire.
31. To do this, in the same way already learned, pass the wire through the bottom of the clam shell part, then put on the crimp bead.
32. Next crimp the crimp bead inside the clam shell part, but one thing to be careful about is to crimp the bead right down next to the exact edge inside the clam shell part, and then close the two sides of the clam shell part, there will be no space at all between the beads and they just don’t look or feel as nice compared to leaving a little bit of room between them.
33. So when crimping the crimp bead move it up just a little bit, only about the width of a seed bead. It’s just a little bit of space but it really makes a big difference. Also make sure that there's not too much space as the beads will then be too loose.
34. After crimping the crimp bead, just like before, run the wire back through the hole, and pull it down.
35. Then, just like earlier take the wire and feed it through our beads to a length of about 2 inches. If the wire comes out before reaching the two inches, just take it and feed it back in.
36. The next thing to make sure of is that the wire doesn’t emerge from one of the seed beads, but make sure it emerged from one of the Swarovski beads. If the wire comes out from one of the larger beads, after cutting the wire there's no need to worry about the end or the wire popping out when wearing the necklace and the beads move a little bit on the wire.
37. So now with the wire coming out at about 2 inches, take the flash cutter and cut the wire.
38. Then close the two sides of the clam shell part with the flat nosed pliers.
39. After closing the clam shell, take the extender part and place it on the hook. Then with the round nose pliers bend the hook down, and finally squeeze it just a little more with the flat nosed pliers.