Vintage Winter Berry Necklace
Designed by Kristin Burgess
The rich red color of these unique old Czech beads is amazing! Simply strung together with seed beads really showcases the intricate design of these fun floral treasures. Strands do vary slightly and all come with the old original Czech tag so you may want two so you can add one strand to your bead stash! Also available in pink, yellow, beige and blue.
This project is great for all levels! Stringing and crimping are involved with this project. This necklace is 35 inches long and for this length 2 strands of the Czech glass are required. One tube of seed beads in size 11/0 is plenty. I have used purple 'seeds' to contrast with the red but consider red, black or tan as I think those colors would be striking too. With this length of necklace a clasp is not needed as the piece will fit over your head. Two crimps and two crimp covers are necessary to help support the necklace due to it's longer length.
Step 1: Cut the end of the Czech glass strand. Leave the beads on the old string and take off as you go rather than making a pile of them. This will help you to keep the pattern as you work as the beads are strung up in the order we want them to be. This will make the project much easier. Do make a small pile of your size 11/0 seed beads.
Step 2: The fine softflex works great for this project as it is very strong yet thin
enough to pick up the seed beads easily. I prefer to string my pieces directly onto the softflex spool. If you prefer to precut your softflex then cut 3 1/2 feet to allow your self a little extra for crimping. Start by stringing 1 seed, then a red glass bead, then 3 seed beads, then a glass bead, then 1 seed bead etc. This pattern is repeated until you reach the floral bead then use one seed on either side to frame this bead before going back to the 3 seed, 1 seed, 3 seed pattern. Continue this pattern until you have exhaused all but one of the red Czech glass beads. If you want a longer necklace, simply increase the number of seed beads used between the red glass to achieve a longer length. Perhaps 2 and then 4 and so on...
Step 3: 
Time to crimp! The standard crimper tool works great with our 2x2 mm crimp beads. Thread on 1 crimp bead, then the 1 red bead left, then 1 more crimp bead. On the other side of the necklace take the softflex and enter the last crimp strung on the other side and the red bead and the first crimp on other side. Then pull the two softflex strands apart. Pulling the softflex in opposite directions adjusts the tension in the necklace. I always adjust tension on necklaces and bracelets by laying them flat on my work area in a circle.
Step 4: After crimping the two crimps use the softflex cutters to trim away leftover
softflex wire. Use the end part of the crimper tool (lemon shaped spot) to apply the crimp covers to the crimps. You will have leftover seed beads for a future project!
