Home Decor and DIY: DIY Beaded Tassel Necklaces

DIY Beaded Tassel Necklaces

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How to make your own DIY Beaded Tassel Necklaces three different ways. Plus how to make a capped tassel. For more tassel projects see my Fashion and Jewelry page.

I’ve decided I am totally addicted to tassels! The Buddha type tassel necklaces are my favs, but man they are hard to find in the stores. So, I decided to make some of my own and surprisingly they really are easy to make. This is a two-part post, I also wrote how to make Capped Tassels w/Beads, please see the link for a more detailed explanation on how to create them. I found there are multiple ways to make these necklaces. I describe two different ways, with two different types of string. Here’s what I did~

DIY Beaded Tassel Necklaces

Supplies:

Round Wood Beads 9mm in various color and wood tones
Crimping Beads
Smooth Beading Pliers

Instructions:

There are lots of ways to make these types of necklaces. The first way I made the necklace is with beading wire, this is my usual way of making necklaces and bracelets. So I thought I would try that first. Cut a long piece of beading wire, around 3-4 ft. Start with a crimped bead on one end, then a small bead and then add your larger beads in various patterns.

When you end the necklace, the end will be in the front where you attach the tassel instead of the normal back of the neck area. For more details on how to crimp and finish a beaded wire necklace or bracelet see my Bracelet Styling & Restyling post with pics and videos. Then add your tassel with a jump ring. To make the tassels see my Capped Tassel post.

Although I liked the feel of the necklace, I found making them with the bead wire made the beads, when you tighten the wire to crimp it, crammed together and they hung really wonky on your neck.

Not flat and smooth like it should be. The holes in the beads were made uneven, especially where the wood ones were concerned.

Next, I made a few with the nylon string, this made the necklace hang more naturally {for example the brown beaded necklace with the green tassel}, with less stress when tightened before finishing.

End the necklace by knotting the end of the string and adding a dot of E6000 adhesive to keep the nylon string from unwinding. The weight of the beads are pretty heavy. Perhaps a waxed type string may work better for strength, in the long run, I will be researching for future reference.

Although, I feel the strength of the bead wire was better in the long run. It just depends on which beads you use and how well the holes were made in the bead itself.

The real way to make the Buddha prayer beads would be to add a knot between each bead as you go. Although I love the way that looks, I really do not have the patience to make that many knots. Ha!

I hope you enjoyed this post! These necklaces are a work in progress for me! Everywhere I go I get so many compliments on them! Check back, I will be making more for this post!