Why We Love This Tutorial:
One of the limitations of macrame is finding beads with holes big enough to fit one or more strands of cord through – but this tutorial solves that problem! It’s just a basic spiral knot (the same as a square knot, except you don’t change directions… in other words, a half square knot). But instead of using two cords as the base that we’re macrame-ing around, we use a single strand of tigertail. This allows us to use any beads we like along the length of the necklace. We’ve used some of our gorgeous gemstone pebble beads (we have just received even more crystal varieties in!), and a big feature pendant. Of course, we have many other gemstone pendants available and so many gemstone pebbles (or any other smallish gemstone bead) to choose from, so you could make whatever colour combination you like!
Beads and Materials You’ll Need:
- 11x Gemstone Pebbles (We’ve used Mookaite; these are usually about 8mm to 10mm, but any smallish gemstone bead will work just fine).
- Gemstone Pendant (we’ve used a dyed Agate Heart Pendant. Please note, our range of pendants changes constantly, so if this pendant is no longer available, please choose something else that will match in!).
- Side Closing Clamshell
- 2x 4mm or 5mm jump rings (we’ve used Stainless steel jump rings)
- Clasp of your choice (we’ve used a stainless steel toggle)
- 2x Crimps
- Tiger Tail (we used 0.45mm)
- 4 metres 0.8mm Nylon cord (we’ve used brown)
Tools You’ll Need:
- Flat Nose pliers
- Macrame board or clip board
- Scissors (for cutting tiger tail – never use pliers for this!)
Method:
- Take a piece of tigertail about 80cm long and flatten a crimp near the end (using flat nose pliers), leaving about 1cm.
- Take about 4 metres of 0.8mm nylon, and in the centre tie onto the 1cm tail of the tigertail.
- Then, pull the knot close to the crimp. Trim the tigerail close to this knot and cover the knot and crimp with a side closing clamshell.
Close it securely using your flat nose pliers. 
- Now it is time to start the macrame. I’ve used a clip board to hold mine in place, but you could use a macrame board if you have one. As mentioned, a spiral knot is basically just a square knot but without changing directions of your knots. (To see these knots in action, I would recommend this video on YouTube by The Flower Art as she demonstrates a variety of basic knots, including the one we are using today!).
- Continue with your spiral knot.
- After completing just over an inch (or 3cm) of knots, it’s time to slide the bead onto the tigertail.
- Take the two cords and simply continue to knot in the same manner around this bead, and continue your macrame.
- Make the necklace as long as you like. With this amount of cord, the necklace is a fairly short style of about 55cm. This length does work well if you are using a large feature pendant like we are. Once you’ve reached your desired length, simply add a crimp (and flatten it), and tie a knot in the two cords. Hide the crimp and knot under a side closing clamshell.
- Using a small jump ring, attach your clasp to the clamshell (likewise do the same to the other end of your necklace with the other side of the toggle).
- To attach the pendant to the toggle, we have opened up the top part of the bail. Not all pendants will have this type of bail, so you may need to use another jump ring instead.
- Close up the bail using flat nose pliers.
- And that’s it!
