Sweet Blue Stardust Heart Necklace: How To Turn A Bead Into A Pendant

We bought this lovely lampwork bead at a bead show and instantly knew we wanted to turn this bead into a pendant. But the hole is drilled top to bottom, so we couldn’t just slide it on a cord. It would hang sideways.

So we used a headpin and two bicone beads to make a loop for the bead to turn the bead into a pendant. To see how we did it, watch the video. Then use the step by step instructions below to try it yourself. You can do this with any bead.

Video How-to: Turn A Bead Into A Pendant

How To Turn A Bead Into A Pendant

Materials

1 Focal bead (Ours is a 25mm Plump Heart called “Sweet Blue Stardust” made by Grace Beads. See her beautiful work here.)
2 Bicone crystals, 4mm
1 Headpin, 2.5″

Tools

Round-nose pliers*
Wire cutters
Chain-nose pliers (optional)

*This project is super easy and fast, but you will need jewelry tools. If you’re unfamiliar with round-nose pliers and chain-nose pliers, we have a little introduction to jewelry tools page. See it here.

Steps

1. Start by sliding one bicone crystal onto the headpin. If the hole in your bead is small and won’t slide over the head of the headpin, you can skip this step. The hole in our bead slips over the head of our headpin, so we are using the bicone crystal as a stopper bead.

2. Slide the focal bead onto the headpin.

3. Slide another bicone onto the headpin.

We are using the second bicone to fill in the little space between the curves of the heart. That way our wire will be hidden by the bead. If you have a round bead, you can skip this step. Although the crystal bicones do all a little sparkle!

4. Now it’s time to make a wrapped loop in the headpin. To do this, grasp the headpin above the last bead with the round-nose pliers.

5. Bend the wire 90°.

6. Reposition the round-nose pliers so they are above the bend.

7. Wrap the wire around the top jaw of the pliers.

8. Reposition the pliers into the partial loop you just made.

9. Finish pulling the wire around the jaw.

10. Use the pliers to grasp the loop flat in the jaws.

11. Using your fingers, pull the tail of the wire around the neck of the loop two times.

12. Trim with the wire cutters.

We slid our pendant onto a leather cord to make a short necklace. We love how it turned out! That bead is just so gorgeous!! If you have any questions about this or any other jewelry making project, leave us a comment and we’ll reply. We love helping!
Happy Crafting,
Jennifer & Kitty

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