Calling All Seed Beaders - I Need Some Advice!

My friend Jennifer has entrusted me with repairing her grandmother's necklace - one of the only items her grandmother brought with her when she immigrated to the USA.  No pressure!


 I need advice from the seed beaders out there.  I don't want to restring the entire necklace - the braid seems very solid and I would hate to undo it and not be able to recreate it.  I thought I could glue the large knots on either end of the seed beads, remove the current end beads and clasp, and trim the excess string.  


I would then make a new clasp with wire, looping the wire through the end of the seed beads, and incorporating the large beads currently on the necklace - something similar to this clasp I made.


What do you think?

4 Comments

  1. ShadowJune 5, 2013 at 1:15 PM

    I don't know. It would depend on the condition of those strands. If they are at all compromised I would suggest restringing. If they seem fine I'm sure you could switch the clasps. You'd have to be very careful though as many glues will cause some of the older threads to deteriorate quickly.

    The best suggestion would be to completely restring the necklace. Most workarounds don't work for long.

    Good luck

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  2. LoriFJune 5, 2013 at 1:30 PM

    Yes, I agree; I think the condition of the end string would indicate the condition of the string the beads are strung on throughout...a recipe for disaster. I would definitely suggest restringing...they'd be not too difficult to move direct from String A to String B (the new one). And really...if you can't duplicate the braid, does it really matter? If it is similar looking, with the same beads, would the friend be happy?

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  3. UnknownJune 5, 2013 at 5:53 PM

    I'm not happy with how that string looks either. If you can figure out how it is constructed, I would definitely advise restringing it. Since it was her grandmothers', I'm going to bet that string is at least 50 years old...

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  4. sallaJune 5, 2013 at 8:46 PM

    the sad reality of seedbead work is that all stringing material wears over time. So, I would not depend on those old threads to hold things together... my head would be to see if you can carefully slip some beading wire through the center of the braid and use that to attach new bead caps and clasp. This would take the weight of the necklace effectively off of the old threads.

    Otherwise, you may have to restring and rebraid.

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