It is fun and cheap to make your own jewelry. Beads and pendants can be used to make a vintage or retro-style necklace that everyone will love. Here is how to do it.
As follows:
Vintage
Choose your beads. When you are ready to make your vintage beaded necklace, the first thing for you to do is to find the perfect beads and pendants. There are many places you can find these for your necklace. Look in your personal collection (or your grandma's) for beads that may be vintage-style. Thrift stores and consignment shops are also great places to look. You can often find great deals on jewelry that are perfect for this classic style necklace. The 60's and 70's tended to have bead colors in autumn tones, like orange, brown and green. Big beads are fun to use. You may have to get the beads at a thrift store so you will probably have to buy a complete necklace, but you can use it as a pattern for your vintage necklace.
Get your beads ready to work with. Once you have found what you need for your vintage-style necklace, prepare your beads. Never use old or used closures and necklace strings. Give your beads a bath in warm soapy water. Dishwashing liquid is very effective. Use a toothbrush to clean grimy glass or porcelain beads. You are almost ready to make your vintage-style beaded necklace, but first be sure to dry your beads.
Prepare your equipment and tools. Place all your tools out, along with the beads and other supplies like round-nose pliers, a closure, and thread - a good thing to use is fishing line. If you make a lot of jewelry you may have a form board to place all the beads in, otherwise lay them out on a clean towel to keep beads in order before stringing them. You can put some new beads along with the old vintage ones you've picked up to add interest. So now lay them all out in the design you think you want.
Begin to string. So now you have your bead design all set out in front of you, and that means that you are ready to begin the stringing part of making your vintage-style necklace. Make sure to add a closure to the end of your beads so they do not fall off, or else you may be in big trouble. When your beads reach the end tie a knot around the other closure and cut off any excess string. Your unique vintage-style necklace is finished and ready to show off to world!
Making Your Own Vintage-Style Necklace
Tiffany Provost writes about necklace and other hobbies for HowToDoThings.com.