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For a amulet similar to this one, you will need:
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Tools you will need:
- Scissors
Simple Instructions:
- Cut two 14" pieces of the waxed polyester cord (one of each color). In this tutorial, I will refer to the colors shown in the picture, but use whatever colors appeal.
- Insert a single thickness of the red cord into the loop on the side of the heart clasp.
- Match up the ends of the cord to find the middle. Holding both sides of the cord together, tie a halfhitch knot about 1/2" below the clasp.
- Insert both ends of the red cord into the Breast Cancer Awareness bead. Be sure that the ribbon is pointed the right direction (loop at the top - closest to the clasp end of the amulet).
- Tie another halfhitch knot directly below the bead using both thicknesses of cord. It helps to tighten slowly while sliding the knot a close as you can to the bead.
- Take the blue cord and fold it in half to find the middle. Separate the red cords and align the blue cord's middle about 1/2" below the awareness bead. Tie a halfhitch knot using one red cord and the middle of the blue cord. Position the knot about 1/2" below the awareness bead.
- String a bead on the blue cord. It looks best if you pick the side of the cord that is coming out of the top side of the knot. I used a 6mm Faceted Crystal AB bead - but you may pick any bead that appeals.
- Just past the bead that was just strung, line up the remainder of the blue cord with the other red cord coming down from the awareness bead. Tie a halfhitch with these two cords. You are trying to create a triangle shape with the cords just below the awareness bead.
- On each of the red cords, we are going to string a Beaded Angel. I wanted my angels to hang at different heights, so I tied a single halfhitch knot in each individual cord. One angel is about 3/4" below the triangle section, the other is about 1.5" below. This knot keeps the angel parts from sliding around on the cord.
- On each red cord, string these beads in sequence: SP Donut Spacer (halo), 6/0 Seed Bead (head), 14mm Angel Wing Glass Bead , 7mm SP Bead Cap (curved downwards - top of Angel's skirt), 12x8mm Faceted Teardrop (angel skirt). After stringing these beads, tie a halfhitch knot just below the angel's skirt.
- On each of the blue cords and at the bottom of the red cords, string any other beads of your choice. When I added the heart beads at the bottom of each cord, I did not tie a knot above them to allow the hearts to slide on the cord.
Tips:
- Our polyester cord is waxed to help prevent fraying and to help keep knots tight. When you first start sliding beads on it, it will sometimes collect little blobs of wax. This doesn't hurt anything - just discard the wax.
- Bead holes for this project need to be about 1mm or larger to be able to slip a single strand of cord through the hole. I did not use 4mm Czech glass rounds for this project because the holes are too small (6/0 seed beads were used instead). Also, only some of the beads in the Hearts & Flowers mix have holes that are large enough for this project. If you use this mix, plan on having some beads left over for other purposes.
- If you want to keep the ends of the cord from fraying, you may carefully heat the ends of the cord. Holding the end of the cord near the flame from a lighter or match, watch for melting to occur, then take the cord away from the flame. Do not put the cord into the flame because it can catch on fire and will turn black. I did not do this in the example, as I liked the slightly frayed look of the cord ends.
