Knotted Bead Necklace: Beads Spaced with Simple Overhand Knots

A knotted bead necklace is made with nothing more than cord, a few large-hole beads and one knot repeated over and over. Each bead is held in place by an overhand knot on either side, with bare cord showing in between, and the finished loop is long enough to slip over the head, so there is no clasp to attach and no tool to buy.

What you need

• 9 beads, 10 mm, with holes of about 2 mm or larger (wood, glass or acrylic all work)
• Cord about 1.5 mm thick, such as waxed cotton cord: 48 in (122 cm)
• Scissors and a tape measure
• A thick blunt needle, an awl or a wooden toothpick for guiding the knots
• A strip of card cut to 2 3/8 in (60 mm) long, to use as a spacing gauge
• One or two spare beads

The cord must pass through the bead hole, and a single overhand knot in that cord must be too big to follow it. The guides to stringing materials and types of beads explain cord thickness and hole sizes.

Finished size and how to resize

The necklace is a closed loop of 27 in (69 cm) with 9 beads spaced evenly around it, one every 3 in (76 mm) measured from bead center to bead center: 9 × 3 = 27 in. Wrap a tape measure into a 27 in loop and try it over the head before starting.

To make it longer, add beads at the same spacing: ten beads give a 30 in (76 cm) loop. The necklace length guide shows where each length sits on the body.

The cord arithmetic

A knot shortens the cord. In 1.5 mm cord, one overhand knot takes up about 1/2 in (12 mm), though cords differ. To measure a particular cord, mark two points 4 in (10 cm) apart on a scrap piece, tie one knot between the marks, pull it firm and measure again. The difference is the allowance per knot.

The cut length is the sum of three parts:

• Finished loop: 27 in
• Knots beside the beads: 9 beads × 2 knots = 18 knots, and 18 × 1/2 in = 9 in
• Tails for the closing knot: 4 in at each end = 8 in

That is 27 + 9 + 8 = 44 in. Add about 4 in to spare and cut 48 in (122 cm). The beads themselves use no extra cord, because the cord runs straight through them.

Why the gauge is 2 3/8 in

Each bead and its two knots form one station. The bead is 10 mm wide and each firm knot is about 3 mm long, so a station covers roughly 16 mm. With stations 76 mm apart from center to center, the bare cord between them is 76 − 16 = 60 mm, or about 2 3/8 in. Holding the card strip against the cord sets that gap without measuring every time.

Step by step

Work from the middle of the cord outward. Any small error in the knot allowance then ends up in the tails, where it does no harm.

1. Find the center. Fold the cord in half and pinch the fold. Slide one bead to that point.
2. Tie the first knot. Make a loose overhand knot on one side of the bead: form a loop, pass the end through it, and leave the knot open.
3. Guide the knot to the bead. Put the tip of the needle through the open knot and rest the tip against the bead. Pull the cord so the knot closes around the needle and slides down it. When the knot touches the bead, draw the needle out and pull firm.
4. Knot the other side. Tie a second knot on the opposite side of the bead in the same way. The bead should not slide at all.
5. Set the gap. Lay the card gauge along the cord with one end against the knot. Tie a loose overhand knot and use the needle to settle it at the far end of the card.
6. Add the next bead. Slide a bead down to that knot and lock it with another knot on its far side.
7. Repeat on both sides. Add four beads to each side of the center bead, alternating sides so the necklace grows evenly. There are now 9 beads and 18 knots.
8. Close the loop. Bring the two tails together. Check that the gap at the back, measured from the last knot on one side to the last knot on the other, matches the card gauge. Tie one overhand knot with both strands held together at the midpoint of that gap.
9. Try it on, then trim. Slip the loop over the head before pulling the closing knot fully tight. Then tighten and cut the tails to about 3/8 in (10 mm).

If this happens, do that

• The knot slips inside the bead. The hole is too large for a single knot. Tie a double overhand knot by passing the end through the loop twice, and allow about twice as much cord per knot.
• The knot tightened in the wrong place. Push the needle tip into the knot and wiggle it loose, then guide it again.
• The cord end frays and will not go through a bead. Cut it at a slant, or stiffen the last half inch with a dab of clear glue and let it dry.
• The tails are too short to tie. Make the gap at the back a little shorter than the others. It sits behind the neck where the difference does not show, as long as the loop still passes over the head.

A variation

Group the beads instead of spacing them singly: three beads pushed together with one knot at each end need only 2 knots per group, which saves cord.

The closing knot is the same two-strand overhand knot used on elastic, and the guide to knots that hold shows it in detail.