DIY Whimsical Beaded Necklace

Blog

April 18, 2023

DIY Whimsical Beaded Necklace was a fun craft to create. This craft started with wanting to try to use resin in a fun way. Making the large pieces for the necklace was fun, but also picking out the embellishments that went on the necklace too was a fun challenge.

Project Materials FOR DIY WHIMSICAL BEADED NECKLACE:

Resin: Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/3Aa9eBe
Resin Dies: Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/3MXxFtg
Craft beads: I used beads like these. They worked with the cording. Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/41FATWm
Leather Cording
Jewelry Clamps: These are similar to what I used. Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/3MTWnuI
Metal Charms Here are 3 of my Amazon referral links to metal charms I used: https://amzn.to/3GPEfht https://amzn.to/3KUVG1I https://amzn.to/3mELWR5
Flat Back Resin Charms: Here is my Amazon referral link: https://amzn.to/3MTYpL7
Resin Charms with a hook: Here is my Amazon referral link: https://amzn.to/3okVbWW
Toggle clasp: Here is my Amazon referral link to some that are similar to what I used https://amzn.to/3GUtlHg
Jump Rings: Here is my Amazon referral link to some that are similar to the ones I used https://amzn.to/43HEe9c
Resin Jewelry Mold: Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/41IqFop
Rhinestone Embellishments: Here is my Amazon referral link https://amzn.to/41hFpKV

Let’s Start with Resin

Let’s start with Resin for the DYI Whimsical Beaded Necklace. Follow the instructions on the package! That is very important or it won’t work out. You should wear gloves too. Pour equal amounts of each bottle into TWO separate cups. I used plastic ones, so I can throw them away after I am done with them. After you have poured the resin into the two separate cups, making sure they are equal, pour them together into ONE cup. Stir very gently. Read the instructions on how to stir.

After you have stirred according to directions, then you can pour the resin into the molds. But let’s back track just a bit…..

First, take the jewelry silicone mold and placed some of the rhinestone embellishments in them to see what you want them to look like. Do the same thing with the flat backed resin charms. Once you know what you wanted to make with the resin charms, remove them from the silicone mold. The next step in this process, is putting a little bit of the resin in the molds. Just enough to cover the bottom. Then, place the embellishments in the mold. For my resin pieces, I also added some small pearl type embellishments and I found and some gold and silver glitter to sprinkle in them too. After the had the embellishments are placed, top off the molds with the resin.

Tinted Resin

Some of the molds had the tinted resin in them. Take some of the resin and add a few drops of the resin die into the cup of resin and gently stirred it up. The only difference I noticed when using the colored resin is that the resin pieces take an extra day to fully harden. The clear resin will be good after about 24 hours, but the ones with color will still be soft after about 24 hours. Just leave them sit longer and they will also be hardened properly.

The next step is to take a heat tool or maybe even a hair dryer, and carefully move it over the silicone molds. The heat helps to get rid of any air bubbles that might be in the mold.

Now, just leave them sit on a flat table for at least 24 hours. After all the resin pieces were hardened, I took a very fine sand paper and sanded the edges of the piece to smooth them out. I don’t know if this is a normal thing to do, but it turned out good for me.

Time to assemble the DIY Whimsical Beaded Necklace

First, I cut a piece of the cord for the necklace. Cut whatever length works for you. Added the jewelry clamps to the end of the cord along with a dab of Gorilla Glue, just to make sure it held. Next, decide which charms and beads you want on the necklace. Then add the jump rings to the charms so they can just slide right onto the cord. For the resin pieces, a larger jump ring is needed. Luckily some came with my silicone mold.

After you have decided on bead placement, it is time to add the toggle clasps to the end of the cord.

This project is so fun and really lets you just go crazy with designing how you want your neck lace to look. On some of the necklaces, I tied a not right above the beads in order to keep them in place. It also looked kind of neat. This is a project that you can do with kids if you do most of the prep work first. The kids can help decide what pieces go on the necklaces. Another option is to use pre-made necklaces. Either way, this is a fun project.