For this week’s jewelry project I show you how to take any two colors of seed beads and blend them together into a beautiful necklace. I’ve been on a turquoise and copper kick lately and I absolutely LOVE how this came out.

If you were to use two colors next to each other on the color wheel (such as blue and green) the effect would be subtle and lovely. Use colors opposite each other (such as purple and yellow) for a dramatic look.

The bead stringing takes a little bit of time, but if you watched my Bead Spinner video last week you’ll know how you can do this much faster.

Here’s the chart that I showed in the video, just help clarify the order of things.

You could do this on a smaller scale for a bracelet, or change any of the section lengths to suit your needs.

And here’s a bonus tip that I discovered. The beaded portion of this necklace is quite long, about 27 inches. If you want to shorten it a bit, a fun way to do that is to tie a loose knot with all the strands. I put mine slightly off center and think I’m going to love wearing it this way.

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

You can watch the Blended Colors Bead Necklace Video Tutorial over at YouTube.

Materials

• 3 24 gram tubes of 6/0 seed beads of one color
• 3 24 gram tubes 6/0 seed beads of a second color
• 6 36-inch pieces of bead thread, such as Nymo Nylon Beading thread
• 2 bead cones
• 2 4 mm beads
• 2 eye pins
• clasp
• jump ring
• 6 inch length of chain

Tools

• chain nose pliers
• round nose pliers
• wire cutters
• scissors
• ruler
• super glue
• needle threader
• funnel
• small dish
• Bead Spinner
• optional: extra curved needles for bead spinner, six would be ideal

Directions

1. Tie all six lengths of beading thread together at one end with an overhand knot.
2. String 5 inches of color A onto each of the six strands.
3. Mix together one tube of each color and string 5 inches of these mixed colors onto each of the six strands. Set mixed colors aside.
4. String 6 inches of color B onto each of the six strands.
5. String 5 inches of mixed colors onto each of six strands.
6. Finish by stringing 5 inches of color A onto each of the six strands.
7. Open an eye pin and tie ends of six strands around eye pin. Close eye pin and tie strands again to knot. Dab with super glue and allow to dry.
8. Repeat on the other end of necklace, making sure beads are all snug against the first end.
9. Onto each eye pin slide a bead cone and a 4mm bead. Use round nose pliers to make a loop, trimming excess wire with wire cutters.
10. To one loop attach one end of the chain. To the other loop attach your clasp with a jump ring.

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