Asymmetrical Blue Glass Bead Necklace

This necklace came about as a mix of regular kiln formed beads, and beads with nichrome loops. Add an all glass toggle closure and it’s just about perfect!

Materials needed:

• 7-10 triangle beads each of clear, pale blue, Bombay Sapphire blue and cobalt blue. These beads should be about 1/2″ wide. This is a chunky necklace, my 19″ of bead yielded a collar bone length necklace. If you want a longer, more traditional length necklace, you’ll need about 24″ of beads total.

• Fused glass toggle – A glass toggle clasp is a donut and a fused bar with a nichrome loop in the center. The bar should be slightly wider than the donut. (the instructions for a glass toggle clasp were in the fabulous newsletter, are you subscribed?)
• Two long cobalt triangle beads, one at 1.75″ and one at 1.25″ (Triangle Bead Tutorial Here)
• One 1.5″ Triangle bail bead (Bail Bead Tutorial Here)
• beading wire and crimp beads. I like to use a nylon coated stainless steel beading wire, it is strong and still flexible. Available at nearly every craft store.

Step 1.

Start by laying out your beads in the array that you like.

Step 2 – Assemble your Necklace

Cut your bead wire a few inches longer than your necklace

Crimp one end of the wire around the glass donut to make one side of the clasp

String the smaller triangle beads from your necklace

Add a crimp bead to the wire BEFORE the longer focal point beads

Then add the long beads in this order:

1.75″ triangle bead

long bail bead

1.25″ triangle bead

Now run the wire back through the crimp bead to create the focal point.

Close the crimp bead securely. I like to feed the wire back through the first small bead before trimming it to keep the end tidy. Trim the wire closely.

Now crimp the remaining wire to the nichrome loop on the bail bead to start the second half of the necklace

Add the smaller beads from the second half of the necklace, depending on the size of your crimp beads, the first bead may cover the crimp.

Once you’ve added all of the remaining beads, crimp the end of the wire around the nichrome loop of the toggle bar. Again, I like to feed the wire through the first bead before trimming it.

Done!