How to Make an Interchangeable Wood Bead Garland

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:

20mm natural wood beads

jute twine

jump rings

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?