Hemp Jewelry Designs

I have been busy making inventory for a festival coming up at the end of May. So with making all this new jewelry I have had the chance to be able to get some hemp jewelry patterns to be able to post!

Here is a easy braided hemp necklace that you can make. This design is good for beads that have huge holes. If you can’t find ones with large holes, I suggest making your own polymer clay beads for this one!! That way you can make the hole large enough to suit your needs.

This pattern is for a 15″ necklace.

What you will need:

1. 48# hemp twine
2. One bead with large hole
3. Clasp, if you want to use that for a closure. I always use tie ends, so the clasp is a matter of preference.

Please note: This pattern is for personal use only. If you wish to use it for commerial use, be nice and contact me for permission.

Step 1:

Cut 6 strands of hemp at about 60 inches. (4 times the length of the necklace) This is probably overkill, but I want extra hemp rather than not enough.

Step 2:

String your bead onto 4 strands of hemp and center it. IF your hole is big enough to string all six strands, you can string them all in the bead. My bead wasn’t big enough, so I just used 4.

Step 3:

Your bead should be in the center of your strands of hemp. You will be working on one side of the necklace.

Take one of your left over hemp strands and make an square knot next to the bead. (IF you used all 6 strands through your bead you will NOT have to do this step) Now you have 6 strands of hemp on the one side of your necklace.

Step 4:

Seperate the strands into groups of two. So you will have 3 sets of 2 cords. Using the 3 strand braid technique you are going to braid the hemp for about 7 inches.

Make sure that you keep the 2 strands in each set ‘flat’, if that makes sense? Or maybe next to each other while braiding so that they don’t bunch up. Maybe that explains it better.

Step 5:

When you reach the end, I take 3 cords and make an over hand knot on one side and then 3 cords on the other side and make an over hand knot. Cut excess cord, but leave enough cord so that you can use that for tie ends.

Here is what mine looks like:

Step 6:

Turn your necklace around and work on the other side of the bead. Go back up to step 3 and repeat through step 5. Your necklace is DONE.

Questions? Comments? Let me know.

Happy Knotting

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To continue on with how much cord you will need for a project, I have a few more tips on how to determine length of cords.

The question:

“Are these lengths like so if you used one cord for -both- strings? Like two strings this length and four strings to knot with, if that makes sense? I would imagine it’s like this, but that’s a lot of wasted chord and work if I’m thinking wrong.”

If I am understanding the question, you are asking if the tips I posted about determining cord lengths are for both sets of cords…the bearers and the knotters.

The answer:

It depends. Depending on what style of knotting you are going to use, your cord lengths for the knotters and the bearers can either be the same or they can be different.

I know if I am going to make a bracelet that will not be using the knot bearers as knotting cords (such as the switch knot) I will not need as much cord for the knot bearers. Hence, I can cut those cords shorter than the knotting cords. Usually, I measure the finished length of the piece of jewelry and then add about 6 inches to that to make sure I have enough left over cord for tie ends. (assuming that is the closure I am going to use)

If I am going to use the knot bearers somehow as knotting cords within the piece, I am going to cut the same amount of length for both the knot bearers AND knotting cords.

Is it a waste of hemp? Sometimes. But I will tell you, I would rather have TOO much hemp than NOT enough. Nothing sucks more than being in the middle of a piece of jewelry and realizing that I will not have enough cord to finish the project.

The more you work with different knotting styles, the more you will automatically know how much cord you will need for the bearers and for the knotters. At first it will be almost trial and error. But if you stick to some guidelines in the beginning that will help you along the way.

Does this make sense? If not, let me know any questions you have. IF you don’t ask questions, then I can’t help

Happy Knotting

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To add to how much cord do I need post, here are a couple more tips to help you determine cord length.

I have been asked by a faithful reader a couple of good questions to help with deciding on cord length.

“Is there a way to know how -much- more or less chord I should get depending on the knot?”

The answer is yes and no For me, it just took practice and lots of trial and error to get it down to where I was not wasting alot of cord or not having enough cord. I just kept to some guidelines, and went from there.

If you are using a knot that is very ’small’–meaning, there is less cord to use to complete one knot, like the half hitch or the half knot, then you are going to use more cord to finish the piece. Does that make sense?

If you are using a knot that is ‘larger’–meaning, there is more cord needed to complete one knot, then you might not need as much cord to finish the piece of jewelry.

Let me do a for example to see if I can explain it a little bit better.

If you are making a piece of jewelry using ..oh lets say the pretzel knot, we KNOW that it will take a lot of cord to make the actually knot itself, and the knot will also take up a larger space in the design, which means less knots need to create it, meaning probably less cord will be needed. Hmmm, maybe that is confusing or not a good example.

On the other hand, if we are going to use the half hitch knot to make a necklace, we KNOW this is a simple knot and one knot is finished using very little cord, so it is going to take a lot of knots to finish the piece. Therefore, we will need more cord for this knot.

Try this experiment to see if it will help you see what I mean.

Let’s make two pieces of jewelry. One with just half knots, and one with the switch knot. We want the jewelry size to be the same size when finished, so you can see how much cord you used with both experiments. I am just pulling numbers out, hopefully this will work.

1. Cut 4 cords, 2 for knotters and 2 for knot bearers
2. Length of all cords cut at 25 inches.
3. Tie overhand knot but leave about 2 inches on the ends before you start your knotting

Ok, work with the first piece of jewelry and just make half knots for about 4 inches.  Make the ending overhand knot and set this aside.

Do the second piece of jewelry and just use the switch knot, and knot until you get 4 inches done, the end with a overhand knot.

Compare your two pieces of jewelry. See how much more cord was needed for the first one? How much cord do you have left over at the end? Compare it to the second one.

Did this experiment even work for you? lol.  Maybe I was just too long winded to say that there really isn’t a magic formula to know how much more or less cord to use depending on the knot, I wish there was, and if there is I don’t know it.

I will have to wait on the second question and answer as I over ‘talked’ in this one!

Any questions? comments? Let me know. If I confused you all to heck, well…I apologize lol.

Happy Knotting

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