Twister Beads to Torsade Boho

The rising popularity of torsades for the bohemian (Boho) look, casual wear, or a night on the town is not new.  Just the beads on the strands used are different.  Remember the twister bead fad of the 80’s (aka twist-a-bead) using multiple colored strands of plastic beads?  Well torsade is just a fancy word for the same thing.  Except for in the days of the twister beads, the fasters were more decorative.  Now they are called necklace shorteners (examples on Amazon)for long endless strands of natural beads or stone nuggets.  You may also find them classified as pearl shortener clasps  to be used with long strands of multi-color fresh water pearls. 

We can call this look Boho because the beads used now are typically natural gems rather than man-made.  The cool thing about this trend is you can buy a few strand in various colors and mix and match to make combinations to go with anything in your wardrobe.  For instance, if wearing a pink sweater with a brown skirt, you could twist/torsade pink and chocolate pearls together to make a thicker dual-color necklace to match. If you desire a large chunky pendant or pearl enhancer on the necklace you are putting together, be sure to slip it on a strand before doing the twisting with other strands.  (Click to see older posts on pearls.)

You can buy torsades already put together so you can wear the mix of gem-bed strands loose and longer or twist for the choker-torsade look.  Of course you can purchase the endless strands and a shortener to put together your own looks.  Where can you buy the shorteners? Get them on Amazon (see links above), at Charming Charlie, or at a few craft stores that sell findings for jewelry making.  Some jewelry sellers are giving the shorteners as free gifts when you purchase an endless strand over 48 inches and others are charging $5 for it as an add-on item.