DIY Tassel Statement Necklace

I may be a little late to the tasseled jewelry trend...but I'm no stranger to a statement necklace (I've made a ton of statement necklace DIYs in the past!) I finally bought myself a tassel maker to experiment with making tassels for different kinds of jewelry and I'm pretty much obsessed with how this DIY tassel necklace turned out.

I combined some colorful stone beads with some glass and crystal beads and attached them all together in a collared necklace design with some fun and flirty tassels made using embroidery floss hanging off the ends of the beads!

This necklace looks harder to make than it really is.  With just a few basic jewelry making skills, you can make your own version too! And you technically don't even need a fancy tassel maker either: there are some YouTube tutorials you can look up for how to get by without one. Don't skip out on adding the tassels though: they make this necklace so fun!!! Here is the step-by-step instructions so you can make your own version :)

Supplies:

Needle nose pliers, wire cutters, round nose pliers, small cable chain, eye pins, large and medium size fuchsia stone beads,  large and medium size purple glass & crystal beads, a tassel maker, embroidery thread, thin wire, jump rings, and a lobster claw clasp.

Instructions:

Cut three lengths of small cable chain to your standard necklace length

Using a long eye pin, thread on a large fuchsia bead and then thread the eye pin through the center of one of the pieces of chain.  Add on a round purple bead and then thread it through the middle of the second length of chain.  Finally, add on a smaller fuchsia stone bead and then thread it through the middle of last piece of chain.

Add on one more purple crystal bead to the top of the eye pin

Use needle nose pliers to bend the eye pin back 90 degrees

Use wire cutters to trim off all but about a half inch of the eye pin tail

Using round nose pliers, grasp the end of the tail and bend it back around the pliers to form a closed loop

Repeat this process on either side of the original eye pin

Continue on both sides until you have a full collar necklace length

Next up: time to make some tassels! I used a tassel maker from beadalon to help keep my tassels the same width and length

Secure the embroidery thread on the tassel maker, wrap the thread around the prongs until you reach your desired thickness (count how many rotations you do so you can repeat) and then tie a knot around each end of the strings on either side using an extra piece of embroidery thread.

Cut the strings in half in the middle and remove from the tassel maker

Add a jump ring to the end of the string bunch, and then remove the tied knot with scissors

Cut a short length of wire using wire cutters and then wrap multiple times around the top of the tassel, directly below the jump ring.

Trim off the excess wire using wire cutters

Repeat this process until you have enough tassels to add to the necklace, and then give them a "hair cut" using scissors to make all of the tassels the same length

Use needle nose pliers to open up the eye pin at the bottom of the necklace beads, add a tassel, and then squeeze the eye pin shut using the pliers again,

Repeat this process until you have attached all tassels to the necklace

Trim off the ends of the chain on both of the bottom two chain links using wire cutters

Attach a clasp to the ends of the remaining two pieces of chain by using needle nose pliers to attach a jump ring to one end, and a jump ring and lobster claw clasp to the other end

After the chain is attached, your necklace is all done!

I wore this necklace with just a plain maroon colored dress: with all the pizzazz this necklace packs, you really don't need a crazy outfit to pair it with, the necklace will dress up any ensemble!

 This necklace will be a bit of a time investment unless you are a super fast tassel maker.  This was only my second project I made using tassels so I was pretty slow: I got to catch up on lots of episodes of This is Us on my beading desk while I finished it up.

 I think it was well worth the time investment though, because it truly is a one-of-a-kind necklace! There may be similar styles in stores, but I love how unique mine is with the colors I choose. Are you on board with the tassel trend yet??? Let me know if this is something you would ever try making yourself!