Art Deco Pearl chain tutorial

Some pendants deserve more than a simple metal chain or cord. I love the look of crocheted spirals, and the Chenille-stitched necklace that a friend gifted to me is one of the most delicate, romantic pieces that I have. However, there’s a serious bottleneck for me: I simply don’t have the time and patience to create these kinds of necklaces, as they are extremely work-intense.

While playing with my Art Deco Beadingschool Academy Theme Box a ‘what if’ question came to my mind: what if I used the bigger pearls for the cord and just decorated them all around with seed beads to soften the look and make the more delicate-looking, instead of beading the whole piece from teeny-tiny seed beads? The result of that question and some playtime while travelling is the Art Deco Pearl Chain. It’s fast, it’s super elegant, and it can be adjusted to any size of pearls that you like, or even the combination of them.

P4 – 4 mm round glass pearls

P6 – 6 mm round glass pearls

R15 – 15/0 Miyuki seed beads

C11 – 11/0 Miyuki Delica

Findings – depending on the type of your jewel and any extras that you’d like to add.

Pick up C11 + P6 + C11.

Bead back through P6 and bead through the first C11 from the same direction as before.

Pick up (5) R15 and (4) C11 interchangeably, starting and finishing with an R15.

Bead through the C11 on top of the P6.

Pick up the same new group of beads. Bead through the first C11.

Bead up through the P6.

Bead through the C11 at the top of the P6.

Bead back through the P6.

Bead through the C11 at the bottom + first new group of beads + C11 at the top.

Attach a C11 with two square stitches.

Bead through the new bead.

If you’d like to create more distance between two pearls, you can add more C11 in this way.

Pick up P6 + C11.

Bead back through P6.

Bead through C11 at the bottom.

Repeat adding P6 beads and decorate them until you have a long enough sequence.

You can bead a full choker, bracelet, use this chain as necklace straps, or elements of long earrings.

Modify the pattern for P4 beads by adding only (3) R15 + (2) C11 between the C11 beads on the top and at the bottom of the P4.

You can play with different sizes of pearls and combine them into a sequence.

I used a sequence of P4 + P6 + P4 for my earrings.

Add an extra C11 at the bottom and at the top, or at the end and beginning, if making a necklace or bracelet. You can use these to attach the findings or any extra elements.

You can even add a charm at the bottom of an earring.

If I’d like to pull the charm closer to the C11, because it has a big hole, I like to repeat the thread path with a small modification and skip the beads next to the charm.

I repeat the thread path one-two more times, once while skipping the C11.

This creates a teardrop-like shape.

Adding an earring hook is also possible.

This is how the full earring looks like.

You can add a clasp in case of an earring or bracelet in a similar way to the charm or earring finding, depending on the loop of the clasp.