{DIY} Skull Bib Necklace Inspired By Dannijo

As promised, a tutorial on how-to make my interpretation of Dannijo’s skull bib necklace aka The Drew (swoon). To start out you will need:

Flat skull beads
Gold crimp beads
Gold tube beads
Fishing Line
Flat-nose pliers
Faux-suede cord
Gold thread
Glue
2 jump rings
Clasp

First off, lay out your skull beads in your desired pattern.

Then, cut a 40 inch piece of fishing line. Take one crimp bead and thread it so it’s in the middle of your piece of fishing line. Fold the fishing line in half so the crimp bead is at one end, and the two ends are together. Thread the two ends through the middle column of skull beads starting that the bottom. When you are done, the crimp bead will be at the bottom of the column of beads and the fishing line will be sticking out the top. Like so:

Now, take ONE of the pieces of fishing line sticking out the top and thread about 12 crimp beads on. Then thread the next column of skull beads on the right onto the line.

Thread on one gold crimp bead and then stick the fishing line back up through the row of skull beads.

Once it’s back up the top, add some more crimp beads. I alternated my columns of skulls right side up and upside down, so I needed about 16 of the crimp beads in between the next column. Once you get to the bottom, repeat what you did on the last column by adding a crimp bead and threading the fishing line back up through the top. It will look like the one below.

Repeat the process on the other side, be careful not to jostle your beads too much that they fall of the other end.

Use the gold thread to wrap two of the skull beads along to top together through the eyes. Tye it off on the back. Repeat with all of the skulls along the top. Secure the knots with a dot of glue and let it dry over night.

In the morning, cut the ends of the gold thread off. Next thread the two strands of fishing line with more crimp beads and gold tube beads until the ends are as long as you would like them. Add jump rings and a clasp on the ends. Use your flat-nose pliers to crimp down the last crimp bead at the end so it all stays attached.

Now, at this point it is ready to wear. But the gold was a little bright for my taste so I wove some faux suede cord through the top twisted it around the chain a little and knotted it around the jump rings on each end.

I know it’s a lot. But to me, this is a piece that begs to be layered. So layer.

More is more.