Beach finds, natural coral necklace with vintage button tutorial

I always get something from our trips to the beach. An empty shell, a piece of drift wood, a piece of coral or a smooth rock. All these thing will remind me of a day spent by the sea. I already have a small collection of beach finds. I am going to make a shadow box with some of these shells for our living room but some finds are so gorgeous that they can be worn as jewelry. So I made a hole in some rocks and coral and Albina (Albinasjewelry) helped me finish these projects during our last get-together craft party.  The day with Albina was fun and I learned a lot. No wonder, she is a great jewelry instructor!

So here is her tutorial for a natural coral necklace.

 Materials and tools:

Coral bead (or your favorite focal bead)
Large-hole beads – 2
Waxed cotton cord, 2mm – 3 times longer then wanted length of the necklace
Shank button – 1
Ruler
Scissors
Long chain nose pliers (optional)
Fabric glue (optional)

Measure and cut piece of cord. You will need about 3 times longer cord then the length of the necklace (i.e. for 18” necklace you will need 54” cord). Notice, the more knots your design has the longer cord you need. This design has total 8 knots.

1. Fold the cord in half. Pass the folded end of the cord through a large-hole bead, focal bead, a large-hole bead, and a shank button. 

2. Make an over-hand knot 1cm away from the fold. This will be a loop for the closure.

3. For 18” necklace, measure 12” from the loop and place the focal bead (coral) there. Make an over-hand knot on both sides of the coral. Try to place a knot as close as possible to the coral. You may want to use chain nose pliers to push the knot. Now, the center piece is “locked”. 

4. Measure about 3.5” from the coral knot and make another over-hand knot. Slide large-hole bead towards that knot and make another knot “locking” the bead.

5. Repeat step 4 from another side of the coral. You have almost finished necklace now.
6. Fold the necklace in two. Two large-hole beads have to be across each other. Slide the button so it is just above the loop and fold the cords (notice, you will have 4 cords running together). Make an over-hand knot. You may want to put a drop of fabric glue. 

7. Let the glue dry. Cut two ends of the cords close to the knot. 

 Your new OOAK necklace is ready! Please enjoy this how-to tutorial and let us know how you like it when you make one for yourself.