Wood Bead Garland

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The other day I was in Pottery Barn

and I saw a wood bead garland.

The beads were big and beefy

and I loved the way it looked

all hanging out of the bowl

and draped onto the coffee table.

I looked at the price —

Ninety-nine dollars!

Huh…

So I went home

and made my own!

(I even put tassels on the ends of mine!)

So here’s how easy it is to make your own wood bead garland:

ALL YOU NEED ARE BEADS, SISAL ROPE AND JUTE TWINE

These wooden beads are 1.5 inches in diameter. There are 25 beads in the bag and they will make a garland about 3 feet long (not counting the tassels.) If you want a longer wood bead garland, add more beads.

Make sure the rope is small enough to go easily through the holes in the beads.

START STRINGING THE BEADS

Wrap a small piece of masking tape around the end of the rope to keep it from raveling. Then string each bead onto the rope

until you have them all strung. Don’t cut the other end of the rope just yet.

MAKE TWO TASSELS

Wrap the jute twine around a book about 50 - 60 times. I used a book that was about 5.25 inches wide and about an inch thick. Don’t wrap it too tight. You can tape the end down to help hold it in place.

When you’re all done wrapping, pull a separate piece of twine under all the wrapped twine

and work it up to the top of the tassel. Now tie it at the top to hold it all together (not in a double knot yet) and gently slip everything off of the book.

Now that it’s off of the book, gather all the strands together at the top and tie it tightly in a double knot.

Cut the bottom loops of the tassel, pulling it straight down with your scissors as you cut.

Make a loop on the side of the tassel about an inch down from the top. Make sure the end of the loop is facing up toward the top of the tassel. Now start wrapping the other end of the twine around the tassel tightly from the top down to make the ‘neck’ of the tassel.

When you’ve finished wrapping (about 8 - 10 times), cut the end of the twine and feed it through the loop sticking out of the bottom of the wrapping.

While still holding the end of the twine that’s through the loop, pull the top piece of the loop until the loop disappears under your wrapping along with the end of the twine.

Now snip off the top and the bottom piece of twine from the loop.

Next, pull down the ‘skirt’ of the tassel as evenly as possible and tape the bottom with masking tape. Now cut the ends across the tape. Unwrap the tape and you’ll have nice even ends on your tassel. Repeat the whole process for the second tassel.

Quick tip: my jute twine was a little unruly from being wound up on the skein for many years so I steamed the skirt with my steamer to make all the strings hang straight.

ATTACH TASSELS TO THE GARLAND

Using the strings left at the top of your tassel, tie the tassel tightly to the end of the rope, leaving about an inch of rope at the end.

Now fold the rope back on itself making a loop and wire it together tightly. Tuck the ends of the wire down onto the rope so it will fit inside the hole of the bead.

Now pull the other end of the rope (that’s still attached to the roll) and while you’re pulling the other end, work the wired end into the bead hole. It helps to use a tiny screwdriver to help tuck everything into the bead.

Now you want to cut the remaining end of the rope and attach the second tassel. Push all of the beads toward the end you just finished, leaving a little bit of slack so the garland will bend nicely and cut the end about 2 inches longer. (You can always trim more off if you need to — but you can’t add on if you cut it too short.) Now attach the tassel and finish the end just like the one before it.

And there you go!