Description
I designed this Rope necklace pattern as part of the ‘Design Corner’ feature in issue 58 of Bead Magazine. The principle behind Design Corner is to create a few different types of beading project from the same mystery pack of beads. The design ideas that went into the project are outlined in the feature in the magazine. Then readers are given the opportunity to win a copy of their favourite design and the beads to make it.
So, if you have seen this feature and entered the competition, then even if you weren’t lucky enough to win the competition, you can still make the rope necklace using this pattern.
About the rope necklace pattern
This rope necklace design features a focal front section of a Russian spiral variation made with bugle beads and size 8 seed beads. The back area featured a simple peyote stitch tube. Then, I linked the two areas with multiple lengths of randomly strung beads.
I wanted to explore ways of using particular types of bead to best advantage. The mystery packs for this project were supplied by The Bead Shop Online. So, they included:
- 3 packs of mixed beads
- 3 tubes of size 6 seed beads
- packs of bugle beads
- a pack of twin hole beads
- pack of pearls
- 8mm crystals
- 4mm crystals
So, I wanted to look at ways of using bugle beads and, for this project, the Russian spiral seemed like an excellent option. The quantity of beads and the fact that the spiral ended up feeling quite chunky, then led me to build the rope necklace from this focal section. I also had some mixed bead packs included. Now, whilst I find these very appealing, I never know how to use them successfully. So I used the strung lengths of beads to explore this idea.
The rope necklace proved to be the most popular choice of the three that were on offer.If you are interested in the other design from that issue, a bead embroidered Christmas bauble, you can find it here.
