[Make] Wood Gum Ball Necklace

I've been wanting to make one of these colorful wood "gum ball" necklaces for a while now.  I'm not sure if anyone calls them that, but they look like gum balls to me!

I've seen them in various forms-- half painted, plain, neon, personalized, polka dotted... Since I recently stocked up on a bunch of plain navy, white and black tees for my summer uniform, I decided that a colorful necklace would be a fun wardrobe addition.

Click "Read more" for the How-To

Painted Wood Bead Necklace

Materials:

wood beads in various sizes - I used 12 mm, 20 mm and 25 mm unfinished, pre-drilled beads from Joanns (found in the wood section, not jewelry)

sueded cord, 1 yard for each necklace if you're making an adjustable slipknot (from Joanns in the jewelry section)

acrylic paints - I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface paints in blue calico, habanero (red), beach glass (mint), chamomile (yellow) and gray wolf  (btw, both Joanns and Michaels now carry MS paints!)

gloss or matte glaze - I used Triple Thick Gloss

old chopsticks (thick skewers or pipe cleaners will also work)

foam brushes

The How-To:

Place wood beads on the end of chopsticks and paint.

Let dry and apply a second coat.

Let dry again and paint on the matte or gloss glaze.

When dry, string your beads onto the sueded cord.  I made an adjustable slipknot necklace and used 1 yard of cord for each necklace.

To make the adjustable slip knots, I followed the illustration shown here.

That's it!

For the Fourth of July, I'm making a matte blue & gold version for myself and a shiny red and silver one for my MIL.  It's my subtle way of being patriotic.  :)  I figure this way I can wear the necklace throughout the year.

This may be my last project for a while.  We're revamping our  backyard and I naively thought I wouldn't be impacted by the jackhammering going on outside.  Yeah right!  I can barely think and it's so noisy that we find ourselves yelling "What did you say?" about every 5 minutes.  So the kids and I will be escaping the house for the next few weeks for some peace and quiet.  Plus, they had to move stuff around and ended up placing the shed right in front of my craft room window.  How can I craft and take pictures without any natural light?  Ah well... It'll be worth it in the end.  I'll share some demolition photos next week.  :)

Oh, and rhetorical question but... Why are there spammers on Google Friends Connect?  I keep removing "friends" with butt cracks and breasts showing.  Ah, the joys of social media...   ;)

Have a good one!  

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