Knotted Pearl Necklace - Spoilt Rotten Beads

Knotted Pearl Necklace

Traditional Knotted Pearl Necklace or Bracelet

How to knot pearls

Pearl knotting can be one of the most therapeutic beading techniques but there are other reasons for knotting your pearls:

·         Security – if your strand breaks then you’ll only drop one pearl as opposed to the whole strand

·         A knotted strand of pearls is very flexible and drapes beautifully

·         Protection – knotted pearls cannot rub against or damage their neighbours

For information on our Pearl Knotting Workshops click here

Materials

Griffin Silk Thread

Freshwater Pearls

French Wire

Clasp

Knotting Tweezers

GS Hypo Cement

Method

1.     Begin by cutting two 1cm lengths of French Wire.

2.     Select four pearls that you can thread the silk through twice (don’t get them mixed up with the rest of your beads!).

3.     Take all of the silk off the card that it comes on (you will have 2 meters which is enough for two average length necklaces).

4.     Tie a knot near the end of the thread.

5.     Thread on two of your set aside pearls followed by a piece of French Wire and then half of the clasp.

6.     Next thread the silk back through the last pearl – your French Wire will now loop and protect the silk from rubbing against the clasp.

7.     Using your needle end of the thread tie a knot around the thread the pearls are strung on.

8.     Thread through the second pearl and tie a knot as you did with the first, seal this knot with a small amount of GS Hypo Cement.

9.     You are now ready to string several pearls for knotting so take approx 5 pearls and thread them onto your silk thread.

10.  Side a pearl down to your last knot and make an overhand knot, use your tweezers to secure the knot tight up to your pearl by placing the tweezers through the loop and lightly holding them flush with your pearl as you pull the knot.

11.  This is the tricky bit…Remove the tip of your tweezers from the knot and place them on the outside of the knot. Do not close the tweezers completely, simply use them to block the knot and then pull the thread end away so that the knot is pulled up towards the pearl by the tweezers – don’t move the tweezers, move the thread instead.

12. Continue to slide a pearl down to your last knot, make a knot, slide a pearl down, make an knot and so on and so on until you have the length that you need less the other half of the clasp and the last two pearls.

13. When you are ready to finish thread on the remaining two set aside pearls, a piece of French Wire and the other half of the clasp.

14.    To finish you are doing the same as when you started the piece – thread back through the end bead, tie a knot, thread back through the next bead and tie a knot, secure with GS Hypo Cement and cut off the silk.




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