I’ve got an easy, interchangeable wood bead garland tutorial for you today.
Have you seen pretty pictures in magazines or on Pinterest with strands of wooden beads casually draped around a bottle or wound through a vignette?
Wood beads add interest and texture and I think they look great in a variety of decorating styles from farmhouse to French to boho and others.
Now I know these wood bead garlands are not a new trend and they’ve been around for quite a while, but I just made one with an interesting twist.
This one has an interchangeable agate slice.
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How to make the wood bead garland:
I used 20mm natural wood beads and some basic twine that I already owned.
Here’s what I started with…..
Materials:
pendant or decorative items of your choice (read to the end for some extra ideas!)
Directions for making the garland:
1). Thread the beads onto the twine
First, I threaded the beads onto the twine until it got to the length I was happy with.
Mine is about 4 1/2 feet long.
2). Make a knot in each end
Next, I cut the twine and made a slip knot in each end.
Total transparency: I had to Google “how to tie a slip knot” first:)
I did leave about an inch or so of twine between the beads and the knot so that the beads could have a little wiggle room as I wound them around vases and things.
In the end, I also decided to add a dot of hot glue to the knots themselves so that they wouldn’t accidentally open.
Now for the fun part!
3). Add a decorative pendant
I found a pretty agate slice pendant in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby (similar agate slice here) and added a jump ring to it so that I could attach it to the twine in the garland.
The silver part of the pendant was a little too shiny for me, so I added a tiny bit of rub n’ buff to darken it. Any brown or black paint should work for this. Just be sure not to touch the silver part a lot because it will eventually come off with too much handling.
Check out some different looks using interchangeable pendants…
Bead garland 1:
I added the agate pendant to the middle of my bead garland this time…..
The next time, I removed the agate and added a starfish.
Bead garland 2:
I simply glued a jump ring (slightly opened) to the back of the starfish and then attached it to the garland. This is also why you want a little bit of wiggle room in between your beads as described in the directions above.
For the last one, I added some yarn tassels that I made. I think these fuzzy white tassels give the bead garland a fall or winter look.
Related: Here’s a quick tutorial for making an easy yarn tassel.
This time, I twisted the garland around and tied the tassels to the ends.
Bead garland 3:
Here’s another photo of the tassel garland in a fall vignette….
Extra tips:
- When I make another bead garland I’ll make the end slip knots smaller so that whatever decoration I add will hide the loops better.
- I may even make one into a circle and then I wouldn’t need the loops at all.
Here are some other ideas that you could use as a decoration for your garland:
feathers
twine tassels
colorful embroidery floss tassels
leaves
seashells
a vintage broche
felt flowers, silk flowers, or dried flowers
Christmas ornaments
Any other ideas? What would you use?
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