Part of our online jewellery making  series,  in this article,  we will show you how to produce a really attractive necklace for less than five pounds. If you already know how to make this type of necklace, it's still worth reading on, since we have discovered a few wrinkles to make it all simpler to get right.

The Illusion or "floater" necklace is  a style where beads are spaced along flexible jewellery wire(tiger tail), at intervals known as stations(like stops on a train line), The stations on an illision necklace are fixed into place by using tiny metal bands called crimps, which can be squeezed shut on to the wire to grip it tightly.. Normally you put a crimp either side of the bead station(top left)

Although you can have just one large bead seven times on the wire(left), we think you should let your imagination go, think about colours that go well together, usually two or three related tones in smaller beads. Examples are ruby and amethyst, or olive green and lemon and topaz, or several pastel shades(see  main photo). Equally effective are different shades of the same colour(middle left and bottom left) for more on design tips, follow this link.. If you would like to start with one of our tried and tested designs, please  take a look at our kits pages

 we find that it's best to have seven stations, one larger central group, and three groups of beads up each side. This does depend on how large the beads are that you choose to use. Hint: we recommend using smaller beads, up to 8mm, which allows you to vary the beads in terms of style and shade.

So the first thing you need to do is to place your beads in a pleasing pattern, on a soft mat or cloth..It's best tp arrange the beads sp they are symmetrical, in  mirror image of each other, This is an important step, so take time to get your design right. Now you are ready to fix the beads into place  on to the wire using crimps.

For the next stage,  follow this link. www.rockingrabbit.co.uk/node/1624

Products:

tiger tail wire       floater necklace findings pack        floater kits      snipe nose pliers