How to Make a Beautiful Beaded Eyeglass Chain

If you like to take your glasses on and off but don't want to loose them, you will like wearing an eyeglass chain. Beaded eyeglass chains are easy to make and attractive to wear. You can make many different color combinations to coordinate with all of your outfits. Once you become good at this, you might want to make some beaded eyeglass chains for gifts.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Seed beads
• Some attractive glass or pearl beads for accents
• Flexible beading wire
• Eyeglass holders
• Crimp Beads
• Jewelry Plier

1. 

   BUY THE SUPPLIES SHOWN ABOVE AT A CRAFT STORE OR ONLINE BEAD SITE. Choose a color scheme and buy beads which coordinate well together. Some of the combinations I have used for beaded eyeglass chains are:
   
   - Black, white and clear seed beads and small oval shaped white freshwater pearls
   - Dark blue seed beads with white freshwater pearls
   - Amber and black seed beads with round amber glass beads
   - Multicolored seed beads with round glass beads of different colors
   - Iris mix of seed beads with oval czech glass beads in pink, light blue and dark blue
   - Pink and clear glass beads with pink oval czech glass beads
   
   The color combinations are endless. Just experiment until you find the look you want.

2. 

   DECIDE HOW LONG YOU WANT YOUR CHAIN TO BE. A good length is usually 25 to 30 inches. Put the beads out in the pattern you want to use. You can lay them out on a table or use a beading board.

3. 

   CUT A LENGTH OF BEADING WIRE ABOUT 6 INCHES LONGER THAN YOU NEED. String the wire through a crimp bead and the metal loop on the eyeglass holder. String the wire back through the crimp bead and flatten the crimp bead with the jewelry pliers.

4. 

   STRING THE BEADS ON THE PIECE OF WIRE. After all of the beads have been strung, string a crimp bead on the wire. Put the wire through another eyeglass holder and through several beads in the chain.

5. 

   Pull the wire until all of the beads are tight against each other. Flatten the crimp bead. Cut off any extra wire.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose a larger bead for the bead next to the crimp bead on each end to make the ends of chain secure.
• Be gentle when taking the eyeglass chain on and off. These are very delicate and could break if not handled properly.

[kims3003]

on 11/9/2009 really neat well explained and excellent photos