This started as a quest for a string of pearls, but kept on going. Be warned – making these is like eating potato chips. You can’t stop with just one.

I made these necklaces on .5mm jelly elastic – knotted and secured with glue – and either 6/0 beads or plastic “pearls”:

You need to use a glue that remains flexible to secure the knot in the jelly, then you can cut the ends shorter. I used E6000.

Then I started to think about focal pendants (as one does). These butterflies were charms from Michaels, which I matched with other 6/0 beads.

Next up, I had a look through the other charms in my stash and tried these:

There are smooth teardrops with an A/B coating, little leaves with A/B coating, spiral charms and the one in the middle has the moon on one side and the sun on the other. I also realized that the jelly is stretchier than I’d originally thought, so I made some shorter necklaces.

These ones have faceted glass teardrops that are 9mm long. These were the smallest I could find and come on a string of mixed coloured drops. (I did find some quartz ones that are 7mm long, but they’re a lot more expensive.) Some of these are strung with 6/0 beads while others are with faceted glass 2mm beads.

Of course, you can go on and on with the variations. I’m thinking of necklaces with two or even three strands. Mixing the beads. Alernating beads. Beads of graduated sizes. (etc. etc.) Do my girls need dozens of necklace choices? No, but…potato chips!

We’ll see these in action when the girls model their ballgowns…