Make Beautiful Beaded Pendants for Your Beaded Ropes

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Beaded pendants provide the perfect opportunity to explore new stitches or try a new shaped bead. Plus, it’s gratifying to finish a beading session with a gorgeous new pendant for your efforts! There are many ways to make a beaded pendant your own, from changing the bead colors to choosing a different bail or playing with the stitch.

ABOVE: Meraki bead embroidery pendants by Jill Mackay.

Here are a few of my favorite pendant patterns made by some of the regular contributors to Beadwork. Each one has its merits, whether it’s an ingenious way to bezel a sparkling crystal or a colorful twist on weaving shaped beads. Designers Debora Hodoyer, Vezsuzsi, Nicole Vogt, Becky Mitchell, Rangashrii Santhanam, and Jill Mackay created these designs that you can make in an evening or a weekend.

Precious Diamond Pendant

Create your own Precious Diamond Pendant designed by Debora Hodoyer. The pendant is full of depth and color with layers of embellishment centered around a Swarovski crystal rivoli. The diamond shape is unusual and dramatic – and you can probably stitch it up with supplies from your stash. The design is worked in a circular peyote stitch variation with picots.

Inspired by her home on the island of Sardinia, Debora loves playing with color. Her collection of Dimensional Delight Pendants is an exploration of monochromatic hues. She says, “I’ve always been told that I have a gift for matching colors; however, I don’t spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect color palette. I don’t even refer to a color wheel. I only follow what I call an ‘inner vision’ for matching colors. It’s almost as if I can see the color palette for a specific design in advance.”

Crystal Blossom Pendant

Seed beads, super duos and ginkgo-leaf beads surround a sparkling Swarovski crystal rivoli in this playful Crystal Blossom Pendant by Vezsuzsi. We think it looks like a flower or a snowflake. Either way, it’s a sparkling ode to the beauty of nature. Use circular netting, square stitch, and tubular peyote stitch to create your own beautiful blossom.

Vezsuzsi often uses circular netting to create dimensional objects and jewelry. Her Floret Post Earrings use DropDuos as the focal elements with fire-polished rounds sandwiched between two layers of floral-inspired beadwork. It’s an interesting experiment and an approachable way to try mixing new color combinations along with the technique.

Taraneh Pendant

Use Demi Round seed beads, MiniDuos, and two-hole crescent beads to weave this stunning Taraneh Pendant by Nicole Vogt. Worked in right-angle weave and circular netting, it’s a versatile project that can be easily customized with different colorways. Consider using the Pantone Color(s) of the Year: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating yellow to create your own version.

Nicole loves making and wearing jewelry sets and she often makes several pieces of jewelry with a similar design motif. Her Taraneh Bracelet features crescent beads to create a wavy, complementary design. Imagine your own Tarneh Pendant on a beaded rope with a Taraneh Bracelet. You’ll be dressed in style for your next video meeting or cocktail party. Look for a Bead Artist profile of Nicole Vogt in Beadwork Spring 2021.

Fantasy Flower Pendant

Create this architecturally layered Fantasy Flower Pendant by Becky Mitchell for an intriguing look. Using a medley of shaped beads with circular netting and picots, this pendant works up quickly. The intricate, radiating circles of beadwork resemble a zinnia or another flower with beautiful, concentric layers of petals. While this pendant makes an attractive, single focal point, you might find yourself on a roll and want to make more. Imagine a dramatic collar with three or more of these suspended from a colorful rope.

Becky frequently experiments with stitching shaped beads with seed beads and crystals to create unusual pendants. Becky’s Serendipity Pendant is the result of play and exploration. Pushing down on the center pearl of this dimensional pendant while stitching causes the crescent beads to pop up, a serendipitous design feature that Becky discovered by accident!

Morning Glory Pendant

A lovely twist on the beaded bezel concept, the Morning Glory Pendant by Rangashrii Santhanam uses Kite beads for eye-catching impact. Use tubular peyote stitch and circular netting to stitch up these sparkling beauties. Make the pendant your own using different color combinations or exchanging the bail to suit your style.

Rangashrii specializes in opulent designs using shaped beads, seed beads, and crystals. Her Nila Pendant and reversible Numa Pendant would make beautiful additions to your favorite beaded ropes. Both pendant designs accent large Swarovski crystal fancy stones with imaginative bezels for glamorous, wearable accessories.

Meraki Pendant Necklace

This sparkling Meraki Pendant Necklace by Jill Mackay is a lovely, bite-sized bead embroidery project. The modern Greek work “meraki” means the soul, creativity, and love you put into something – the essence of yourself. You’ll use backstitch bead embroidery, brick stitch, and right-angle weave to create this luscious, layered design.

Jill’s Meraki Pendant is a perfect example of one of those projects that draws you in and won’t let you go. She started out with the intention to create a quick and easy bead-embroidered pendant. After selecting a single teardrop leather shape, she realized it needed more. She experimented with adding layers of leather and a sparkling stone before adding seed beads. Once the pendant was complete, Jill was inspired to create a coordinating beaded chain. What began with a relatively simple idea grew into an elegant layered treat.

Beaded Ropes and Beyond

Have you decided which one of these beauties you’re going to make first? If you don’t already have a beaded rope in mind, then choosing a rope will be the next step toward making your project. You’ll find an amazing amount of information and inspiration on our Beaded Ropes page. When you’re considering a pendant and rope combination, be sure to keep the dimensions of the pendant bail in mind in relation to the size of the rope. It’s easier to adjust one or the other (if necessary) before you begin. Whether you choose bead crochet, tubular peyote, or another favorite stitch, beaded ropes and pendants will bring a whole new dimension to your beadwork.

Happy beading,
Katie Hacker
Editor of Beadwork and host of Jewelry Artist podcast