Those Cute Beads Are Too Tiny

I bought this really cute 100-inch 2mm black spinel and 5mm pearl long endless necklace from a mail order site.   I thought it would go great with other black jewelry. The first time I wore it, I created an approximately  25-inch frame for a black stone pendant by looping it 4-times and putting it over my head.  The next time I wore it, I thought I would wear it alone as a messy multi-strand choker by just wrapping it over my head and around my neck several times - it looked great.  However, when I went to take it off, it was a tangled and knotted mess.  After working over half an hour to try to untangle it, I decided to just cut it off by leaning over a bowl to catch the beads and pearls.  I then put them in a small storage container to consider reconstruction options later.  

We recently had a day of rain and snow, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to create and repair jewelry.  I started with the longest strand left from the above necklace.  I removed a few beads to get it to look like it came built that way.  After knotting the thread ends, I quickly ended up with a 56-inch version of the first endless necklace.  I will use a looped necklace extender or pearl shortener (links are examples on Amazon) in the future when wearing it doubled or tripled to avoid the tangle issue.  Then I looked at the remaining beads to decide if I wanted to try to create versions of shorter things I had seen on various websites. 

Since they a fashionable, I had been thinking about making a jewelry tassel and decided these tiny beads would make a great beaded version.   Depending on how I constructed it, I could put the tassel on a chain, small beads, or regular-size pearls.  Looking through my remaining intact strands, I found four that were the same size which would create 8-strands once folded over and knotted on each end.  I removed the pearls from those strands to use on a shorter necklace.  I then added a large jump ring that could slide over small beads/pearls, thread wrapped around the top for tassel look, and topped it with a large acorn-shaped pearl. The 4-inch tassel took longer than I expected, but was pretty easy to do and I thought it looked lovely.

Finally, I decided to make an 18" necklace with a large center pearl and tiny pearl stations using the ones taken off tassel above.  If I had extra beads after the necklace I would try to create a bracelet.  I could not get any wire I had or a small needle with thread to go through the holes in the 2mm black spinel beads!  After going to the craft store and buying 28 gauge (tiniest size) wire, I started stringing through the teeny holes in the tiny beads.  This part of project took most of the day!  The bead holes were hard to find with the shinny facets confusing my eyes about what I was seeing plus I do not have a bead spinner.  While stringing, the beads kept spilling or coming off the wire!  So I lost some beads and had to use multiple tiny clamps to keep them from slipping around on wire.  I did have beads left over and my bracelet ended up at 6.5 inches so I added an extender to it for extra length.  I added an extender chain to the necklace as well, so it can be worn longer when desirable.  As a break from the tiny bead stringing, I created a pair of matching 1.5" hook earrings from other beads and pearls leftover from past projects.  

Lessons learned:  Do NOT buy extra long necklaces made with micro-tiny beads!  Do NOT try to make custom jewelry with 2mm beads.