Today’s the Fourth of July and that had me thinking a couple of weeks ago about picnics and fun jewelry to wear to picnics (not necessarily patriotic-themed jewelry, but this is definitely something you can make by switching up the color scheme).

I wanted to put together a necklace that could be worn with summer tanks, which to me meant not too long. I went to my nearest craft store and let the beading aisles be my inspiration.

I found lots of goodies, but here’s the idea I came up with to share. It’s pretty simple and I loved the end result.

You need:

7-inch medium loops icon chain

Beading wire

8 mm flat squares (I used peridot shells)

8-by-10 mm faceted rondelles A/B (I used peridot here too)

A toggle clasp (go for fun, if you can find it)

Crimp tubes

Crimping pliers

The first thing you want to do is place a crimp tube on a length of beading wire, then string the wire through one end of the 7-inch chain and back through the crimp tube. Then, use your crimping pliers to crimp the tube and hold your wire in place.

Next, string the mentioned beads by placing one rondelle on the wire (using it to cover up the end of wire that you restrung through the crimp tube). Follow that with three of the flat square beads. Do this a total of four times and end with a rondelle.

Place a crimp tube on the end of the wire and string on one end of your toggle clasp. Then put the wire back through the crimp tube and use pliers to crimp the tube.

Do the same on the other side of the 7-inch chain.

At the end on each side, string the beading wire through a couple of the beads before cutting, this way you won’t have short ends poking you in the neck and making it a miserable piece to wear. Now, put it on and show it off at your next picnic.

A special note here: If you don’t have crimping pliers, go get some. It will be worth it.

The way the pliers work allows the crimp tube to be closed properly around the beading wire, ensuring longer wear.