Dainty Freshwater Pearl Necklace & Earrings Tutorial

Why We Love This Tutorial:

There is definitely nothing complicated about this little design! This week we wanted to keep it very simple, and let the beauty of the pearls shine for themselves! This is a very dainty necklace, and is designed to be worn as a choker. We haven’t even used one strand of pearls in the necklace, so it is only about 36cm long. You may wish to adjust this for your own sizing.

Please note: we have not directly linked to the exact products used in this tutorial as our range of pearls and specialty findings change frequently. Instead we have linked to several product options that will work just as well 🙂 

Beads and Materials You’ll Need:

• Freshwater Pearls – as this is quite a short necklace, we have used smallish pearls – anything from 5mm to 7mm wide will work. Length of pearl is less important. We have used long white nugget freshwater pearls that are about 6-7mm long – but any small pearls will work!
• Coin Pearl for the drop and earrings. We’ve used a coin pearl that’s about 15mm wide (but any large baroque pearl would work just fine for the drop).
• Earrings Hooks – we’ve used Gold Toned Leverback earring findings
• 3x Gold Headpins 50mm or longer
• 27x 2mm spacer beads (we’ve used gold tone 2mm spacers)
• 2x Crimps
• 2x clamshells (or you can just use the crimps, but I like the neat look of clamshells).
• Clasp of your choice (we’ve used a simple lobster clasp)
• 3x 4mm to 6mm jump rings (any size will work within this range)
• Tiger Tail (we used 0.38mm)

Tools You’ll Need:

• Flat Nose pliers (for crimping)
• Round Nose Pliers
• Flush Cutters
• Scissors (for cutting tiger tail – never use pliers for this!)

Method:

1. Cut your tigertail to your desired length. Attach a crimp and clamshell to your tigertail.
2. Make your coin pearl drops (x3). We have performed wrapped loops to make these more secure. We have used a single 2mm spacer at the top of each pearl.
3. Thread on your beads. We have used three pearls separted with one gold 2mm spacer. We have used three 2mm spacers either size of the pearl drop. We have also used three 2mm spacers at each end (after the clamshell). 
4. Finish the necklace off with other clamshell and crimp. Then attach the lobster clasp and 5mm jump ring directly onto the loops on the clamshells.
5. For the earrings, use a 5mm jump ring to attach the completed pearl drop component onto the leverback.
6. And that’s it! Super simple 🙂