Skull Hemp Jewelry Series: Round 1 - The Square Knot

I have a few original projects coming up that I’ve been playing with this summer, but to start out, I’d like to talk about the basic square knot. It’s an easy knot to teach the kids and fashionable enough for adults.  For all of these I have used the same the skull pony beads that I’ve used on my dream catchers.  For the one above I used a synthetic cord because it was thicker than any of the black hemp I had and I like how the thicker cord frames the beads. 

Once you have the square knot down you can change things up with the switch knot.  This is also a great knot for making a sliding clasp. 

Here is the switch knot with eyelash yarn just for fun. I used hemp for the holding cords, the yarn is really slippery and doesn't hold a tight knot, but I think it looks cool nonetheless.  I think eyeball beads with eyelash yarn would be awesome. 
 

 

Real easy project idea for the wee little ones: Beads on knotted strands of ribbon.  This one just has a few skull and glow-in-the-dark beads, but it was a big hit with the 4-6 year old crowd.   

One thing that bugs me, even though I really like the look of these necklaces is the skulls lay sideways. One way to fix this is to make a bracelet instead and always keep your wrist perpendicular to your line of sight. Another way would be for me to put on my big girl pants and get over it, which I'm completely capable of doing as long as I'm wearing the necklaces, instead of looking at them. 

Last spring I picked up some nicer quality skull beads and I didn’t want them to have to face the world cockeyed, but I wanted to still use natural fibers and knots.  And that is how I ended up spending my summer with the vertical larks head knot.

So stay tuned until next time... Skull Hemp Jewelry Series: Round 2 – Vertical Larks HeadKnot