Pearl Twigs Necklace

Skill Level: Beginner/All

Technique: Headpins

A necklace in a magazine advertisement caught my eye. I really liked the basic idea, so I experimented a bit. My happy result is the following design.

**Tip: Although I used freshwater pearls, this design can be made using other drilled items such as stone beads or crystals. Please remember that if your chosen item is larger, you will need to use a longer headpin.

Materials

• 26 24 Gauge Ball Head Pins(1 1/4" Long with 1.5mm End Ball)
• 26 8mm Potato Pearls
• 1 10mm Lobster Claw Clasp with attached ring
• 1 4mm 18 Gauge Jump Ring

Tools

• Flat Nose Pliers
• Round Nose Pliers
• Angle Cutters
• Ruler
• Fine Tipped Marker

Instructions

1. Using a polishing cloth, straighten and clean all headpins.
   

2. Measure and mark each headpin 3/8-inch up from the ball head. Place the tip of round nose pliers at this mark and wrap the longer length of the pin around the plier’s tip, forming a tiny loop.
   
   

3. Slide a pearl onto the headpin, resting it on the loop just made. Measure ¼-inch up from the top of the pearl and mark. Form a wrapped loop at the top of this mark. (To form a wrapped loop, use chain nose pliers to hold the wire at this mark and bend the longer/top length over the top edge of the pliers at a 90º angle.  Place the tip of round-nosed pliers in the top angle of the bend, and wrap the longer length up, over and around the plier’s tip, forming a loop.  Use the remaining wire to wrap the loop in, immediately under the loop’s junction.)
   
   
   

4. This is the Single Component.  (Note: All headpins will have a wrapped loop at their ends and are made in this manner.)
   
   

5. Insert a new headpin into the wrapped loop made in Step 4. Slide a pearl onto this new headpin.
   
   

6. Measure and mark ½-inch from the plain/top end of the pin, (not the ball end where the pearl is), make a 90° bend at this mark and use it to form a wrapped loop, (which will end up being at the top end of the headpin).
   
   
   

7. Repeat Steps 2, 3 and 4, making a new Single Component, but BEFORE wrapping the loop in, insert this new component through the wrapped loop made in Step 7.
   
   

8. Repeat all previous steps, using resulting loops to insert components until the necklace reaches the desired length.
   **Tip:try to make the first loops of the Single Component and the wrapped loops of steps 6 and 7 at different intervals, to break up the monotony of the components.
   
   

9. Finish the necklace by adding the 4mm jump ring to one end and the 10mm lobster claw clasp to the other.
   
   

10. Experiment by using different beads for totally different ‘twigged’ looks.
    
    

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