Murano Glass Part 3 - Mosaico Necklaces no.1

As mentioned in Part 2 I bought some Murano beads in Venice but my sister and I bought 6 strands of Mosaico necklaces. They were all 46cm long and the difference between these necklaces was the colour. We bought two dark blue strands, one light blue, one white, one red and one green strand which I have pictured below. 

Light Green Mosaico Necklace

The white strand was snapped up by my mum when we came home (though that was the colour I wanted) and my sister and I were left to divide 5 strands between the 2 of us since mum didn’t want another one. Considering that I prefer to have my necklaces a little bit longer (I feel more comfortable with strands that are 48cm or longer) we then decided that the two dark blue stands were going to be restrung to make some different pieces.

Today I am going to show you the necklace that I have made for myself, this is what I started with today:

What I started with today, some beads have already been used

I first opened the crimp bead holding onto the string on one side of the lock of the necklace so that I could remove all of the beads and knots from the necklace yet leaving the crimp bead and therefore lock on the other side of the necklace secured to the string.

I used a thin flat object to prize open the crimp bead  holding the sting next to the lock on one side of the necklace

Each bead is secured with a knot therefore I pushed a crochet hook through (any thick/long needle will do, a knitting needle probably would be better than a crochet hook)

Slip a crochet hook through the knot

I then wiggled the hook around within the knot to loosen it so that the knot can be removed.

Crochet hook is wiggled around to loosen the knot so that it can be untied

Once all of the beads had been removed and I was ready to restring. 

To remake my necklace I first made a knot right at the far end of the string next to the clasp so that if the necklace came apart beads would hopefully not fly everywhere.

Added a knot right near the clasp so that if the necklace came apart beads will not fly everywhere

The next step was to start the restringing. As you can already see the original necklace was made with a double length of thread which would be too thick to restring normally, therefore I threaded each onto a separate needle as threading them onto one will make the string/needle too thick to fit through my beads.

The original necklace was made from two pieces of thread, so that I could use both and be able to fit it through the beads, each were threaded onto their own needle

I restrung my necklace using the original Murano beads alongside 3mm 9ct gold beads rather than the gold coloured floral looking pieces they originally used when this necklace was first put together. 

The first step was to thread one needle though the hole in the bead.

Threading a 3mm 9ct gold bead with the first needle

Then string the second needle though the hole, but remember to thread both needles in the same direction and be careful to not thread the second needle through the first needles string.

Threadding the second needle through the same bead as above, be sure to not thread through the first piece of string

One both needles have made their way though the bead pull the bead all the way along the string to the clasp and repeat with the Murano glass bead then another gold bead, etc.

First gold bead in posistion on the necklace I am making

After every eight large Murano beads I also made a knot in the string so that if the necklace would ever come apart beads there won't be too many beads on the loose.

After every eight Murano glass beads a knot was made

When I got to the end of the necklace I made one two last knots in the string before trimming the string and securing the crimp bead on the very last knot, squeezing the crimp bead down with some pliers.

After the last two knots (one after the other) were made on the string, the string was trimmed and the crimp bead was squeezed back on

Here is a picture of the finished product, it is only about 4cm longer than the original necklace but that was how long I wanted this necklace to be and plus I have plenty more beads left over to use on other projects.

  

Thanks for reading. 

Do you restring some of your pieces of jewellery that you feel are just not right for you as they were originally?