'Love story' beaded necklace

Today I will teach you how to make a beaded necklace with a heart shaped pendant. I called it the ‘Love story’ necklace.

To make this necklace I used the following materials:
- size 3/0 transparent green seed beads;
- 20х9х7 mm oblong faceted beads, also of transparent green color;
- 6 & 8 mm yellow pearl round beads;
- a metal connector;
- a small metal decoration;
- a clasp;
- 0.3 mm fishing line;
- a beading needle.

The main element of the necklace is a heart shaped pendant made in the beading technique of cubic right angle weave (CRAW).

To make the pendant I used the pattern of a beaded heart that is described in detail in this tutorial, with some minor changes.

First, I used different materials: size 3/0 seed beads and 6 mm round beads, alternating them in the each cube of a CRAW rope in a certain order. The combination of these materials gives a special expressiveness to the heart so that at first sight you can hardly understand that the technique of weaving this heart is very simple - it’s just an ordinary CRAW.

Second, since a CRAW rope that contains round beads has a poorer bending ability than an ordinary CRAW rope made of seed beads only, I increased the number of cubes in the each side of the heart as compared with the original tutorial.

In all the other aspects the weaving technique of the pendant is the same as in the given tutorial.

As I have already said, seed beads and round beads are alternating in the each cube of a CRAW rope in a certain order. To let you understand the necessary sequence of their alternation, I will show it by making a pattern heart out of green and yellow seed beads. In that pattern you can clearly see ordinary 4-bead units in a CRAW rope and so you can easy understand the order of stringing the beads.
Once again I emphasize that we need that pattern heart solely for educational purposes; it is not used in the necklace directly.

To make the heart I used a single thread stringing method of CRAW that is described here.



So, let’s get started. For the bottom of the 1st cube string four beads in the following order: yellow, green, yellow, green. Tie the beads in a circle.

Make the first side of the cube stringing three beads in the following order: green, yellow, green.

Make the second side of the cube. String two green beads.

Make the third side of the cube stringing one green and one yellow beads.

Complete the fourth side of the cube stringing one green bead. We’ve got the 1st cube. This cube has two opposite green sides and all the other faces of the cube consist of green and yellow beads.

Keep on making the CRAW rope in the same way so that the yellow beads in the each next cube are placed directly above the yellow beads in the previous cube. So the CRAW rope has two green sides (out of four) and there are yellow strips in the center of the other two sides.

In that way make six more cubes.

The next cube is the last one before the turn of the CRAW rope so we need the yellow beads in that cube to be turned at a right angle as well.

Make sure the thread comes out from the green bead and for the 1st side of the next cube string three beads in the following order: yellow, green, yellow.

All the other sides of the cube make using green beads only.
After finishing that cube the CRAW rope consists of 8 cubes.

Now we should change the weaving direction. For the bottom of the next cube choose a side 4-bead unit of the latter cube with two yellow beads in a line (not at an angle to each other).
Then make ten more cubes in an ordinary way, so that the yellow beads in the each next cube are placed directly above the yellow beads in the previous cube.

The next cube is the last one before another turn of the CRAW rope so we need the yellow beads in that cube to be turned at a right angle again.
Please note that we need to change the direction of the turn, thus make sure the thread comes out from the green bead of the ‘outer’ side of the cube and for the 1st side of the next cube string three beads in the following order: yellow, green, yellow.

All the other sides of the cube make out of green beads only.
After finishing that cube the second part of the CRAW rope consists of 11 cubes.

Now change the weaving direction. For the bottom of the next cube choose a side 4-bead unit of the latter cube with two yellow beads in a line (not at an angle to each other). Then make two ordinary cubes so that the yellow beads in the each next cube are placed directly above the yellow beads in the previous cube.

Here is another photo of the CRAW rope at the current stage from a different angle:

Now bend the CRAW rope so that its both ends are positioned close to each other

and connect both ends of the beaded rope together, using 4 additional green beads (2 beads at the each side of the heart). Place those additional beads so that together with the beads at both ends of the beaded rope they make up a ‘connecting’ cube. After that successively weave through all the beads in the new 4-bead units of the ‘connecting’ cube at the each of four sides of the rope.

The beaded pattern heart is finished!

By making the pattern heart we have understood the order of stringing the beads of each color.
Now in the same way make the heart for the necklace out of size 3/0 green seed beads and 6 mm yellow round beads.

After that attach a small decorative element inside the beaded heart and a metal connector on the top of it.

At last, attach to the other end of the connector all the other parts of the necklace: two strings of beads with parts of a clasp. I used the same size 3/0 seed beads as for the heart, 8 mm round beads and oblong faceted beads.

For the first string I picked up the beads in the following order (starting form the connector): three repeats of one seed bead and one round bead, then one faceted bead, after that two repeats of one round bead and one seed bead, then one more round bead, one more faceted bead, again two repeats of one round bead and one seed bead, then one more round bead, one more faceted bead, after that 10 repeats of one round bead and one seed bead and at last a part of a clasp.

For the other string of my necklace the set of beads is the same except the three extra seed beads added just before the clasp because of its asymmetry.

A simple but elegant and attractive beaded necklace has turned out!

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