DIY Swarovski Knock Off Necklace

8:07 AM




Remember those pretty beads I showed you from my trip to Ouray last week? Well they are now a fancy necklace, made by none other than myself.



But first I want to show you my inspiration piece. The Glamour Large Necklace from Swarovski. I saw it a few years ago (like before Pinterest, so it took me a while to find a picture) at the mall where I work and instantly fell in love! It's so pretty, but it was out of my price range ($700) and being a couple of years old, It is no longer available. However, the first time I had laid eyes on it my brain instantly said "I could totally make that myself!" And that's just what I did.

Image from polyvore


To make my necklace I made a trip to Joann's for some jewelry making supplies, I picked up some fasteners, jump rings, crimp beads, and some beading thread. I already had the little pliers, beading needles, and super glue.





The first step was sorting my beads, I had three strands of the yellow and grey glass beads, and one strand of the yellow granite looking beads, everything got divided into three equal piles, and then the yellow glass beads divided into two from there. Oh, and since this was my first jewelry making venture I don't have one of those fancy beading work stations and had to improvise. Besides, my towel works just fine!





Here are the beads once they've been strung. Three solid grey strands and three yellow strands with the granite looking beads in the center.





To the secure the ends of the strands together first I slid a crimp bead over the three strands. Then I used a double overhand knot with a jump ring in the knot. Once my knot was nice and tight, I dabbed a little super glue on the knot before pulling the tails through the crimp bead and crimping. That may be a little over kill, but better safe than sorry.





This is how the the strands look after all that. I'm not going to lie, the first side was so much easier than the other side. Keeping the threads even and somewhat tight was a pain.





Now that all the strands were secured with jump rings on the ends, looping them around each other was a piece of cake. I just used another jump ring to bring the corresponding ends together.





Here's a close up of the closure and how I gathered the ends of the strands together. See both ends of the groups of strands has one tiny jump ring, which are then joined with the larger jump rings that attach to the little toggle clasp. Oh, and you don't have to double up the larger jump rings, I just thought it looked better this way.





Sooo, like it? I wish I could remember what type of stone the granite-y ones are, but you could really do this with any type of small beads.





Now that I've worn it a couple of times here's how I would do it differently. First I'd probably have one more strand on the yellow side. The grey beads are a bit larger so the weight is off a little and I have to adjust it every so often. Secondly I probably would have splurged on two different thread colors. The black is kinda noticeable through the yellow beads. But other than that its holding up very nicely and I love it! I'm also excited to see what Megan came up with for her beads.



So, any jewelry makers out there want to tell me how I did, or any other tips I could use for next time? Is there a necklace that has been begging you to copy it for years like me? I would love to see your sparkly creations. Oh, and my friend Jenna is the queen of Frankensteining broken necklaces together so you should go see hers too!


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11 comments

  1. Its so cute!!! I'm going to make a knockoff of your knockoff. Thanks for the shout-out!

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  2. Make me one!!! My birthday was 2 months ago.

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  3. Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing with us on the Someday Crafts Facebook Page! I will be featuring your project Friday morning on our blog. Please stop back in and grab a Featured at Someday Crafts Button for your blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Thanks so much!!! I'll grab the button tonight or tomorrow.

      nikki

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  4. Very cute. Great knockoff and one that could be done in multiple colors.

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  5. Really pretty, I love the design. I appreciate that you included what you would have done differently. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Hi, Nikki, a bead store girl here! Very nice interpretation of the design, and a good job on making the necklace! And your own design notes are the ones that I would make about your piece, too. The tip I would give you is that crimp beads generally aren't used with thread, because they will eventually wear it away. This may take a long time, but if you see it start to fray, it's time to restring, to avoid broken thread. With beading thread, you want to use calottes, also called bead tips, like these: http://www.jemlibrary.com/0068-bead-tips-calottes. If you want to use the crimp beads, you need to string on flexible beading wire, which does last longer than thread. Your stone beads are some type of composite. It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, but they're most likely stone or shell chips in a resin base. Kim

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    Replies
    1. Dang you anonymous commenter! How am I supposed to thank you for your super helpful tip about not using the crimp beads. I probably only wear the necklace once every two weeks but I'll keep a watchful eye on the string. I will be sure to use something better when the time comes to rebead. Maybe I'll even make my way into a bead shop to get the right stuff, as opposed to just grabbing whatever at Joann's.

      Nikki

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  7. Like this one, I now want to buy a crystal jewelry, Swarovski liked, but I do not know that a good pick money, you help to the point.swarovskiusa.us

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