DIY Christmas Coral Necklace

As most of my readers know, my mom is my muse and she inspires most of my collections and often wears my jewelry with pride. Recently, she told me that a coral necklace I made for her a few years ago broke and she felt bad as she really likes corals. Immediately I wanted to make something new for her but couldnt, as I generally dislike corals and have none in my stash. Then I chanced upon these bamboo coral beads on auntie’s beads that were so luscious and literally took my breadth away.

Once I got them, I strung them together with these old coral seed beads from the broken necklace and even older (atleast 50 yrs old) coral barrels in the center. It turned out to be pretty fun ( I like corals now :)) so I thought of sharing the DIY here. Its simple 2 strand necklace that looks chunky but doesnt feel too heavy.

  DIY Christmas Coral Necklace

 Materials

8-12mm Bamboo Coral nuggets
2.5mm orange coral beads
2 gold tone acrylic flat disc spacers
1 red carnelian bead
Beading wire
2 antique tube crimps
4 gold tone crimp
8 jump rings
1 clasp
Nose pliers and wire cutter

Method:

For the first Strand
1. String about 5 inches worth of 2.5mm corals onto a beading wire (could be more or less depending on the length you want for your necklace) alternatively you can use 2.5mm pink coral beads found here 
2. String a bamboo coral and the small bead alternatively 11 times
3. repeat with the 2.5mm coral beads
4. Add tube crimps to both ends of the beading wire, half crimp them. add a small crimp and feed the wire through a jump ring back through the crimp, into the half closed tube. Flatten both the tube and crimp fully.

 

For the second Strand
1. String about 5.5 inches of 2.5mm corals onto a beading wire (could be more or less depending on the length you want for your necklace)
2. String a bamboo coral and the small bead alternatively 6 times
3. Add a bamboo coral, antique spacer, barrel coral, carnelian, barrel coral, antique spacer eventually ending with a bamboo coral
3. repeat steps 2 and 1 in reverse

Finish the necklace
1. Add tube crimps to both ends of the beading wire, half crimp them. add a crimp and feed the wire through a jump ring back through the crimp, into the half closed tube. Flatten both the tube and crimp fully.
2. Add a clasp to finish the necklace

So how do like this simple but eye caching beaded necklace. The crimp tube technique can be used for any design where the end beads have tiny holes but you need the crimping to be secure owning to the weight of beads used in the necklace. Also you could do some of the things differently – like rounding (filing) the ends of the tube crimp so that they are very soft against the skin or adding spacers instead of the crimp tube.

Styling Tip:
If you are someone who likes wearing red and green during Christmas without looking like a Christmas tree then corals and jades (green) are great options. You can pair them up with neutrals, darks and lights and still look gorgeous.

Disclosure – The bamboo corals were provided by Auntie’s beads for this tutorial

I hope you find it interesting
Cheers

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