Making necklaces out of unusual materials: Hemp

Here is a step by step through the process of making a beautiful hemp necklace.
You will need the following materials:
• A spool of hemp
• Beads with large holes in them
• Super glue
• Really helps to have a project board and T pins but is not mandatory
Ok, let us get started. First, you will need to cut one 5-yard length of hemp and one 2-yard length. You will fold these lengths in half with the 2-yard length on the inside and the 5-yard length on the outside. The reason being because the longer 5-yard cord will be what is called the knotter cords, which will be used to make the knots and the shorter 2-yard cord, will be what are called the carrier cords, which is used as an anchor to hold the knots. The cords will tend to be very long at first so you will want to butterfly them by wrapping them in a figure eight pattern around your fingers. Wrap them in the middle with rubber bands so they will stay together.

You will start by making a loop at the end by tying an overhand knot. Apply glue as you are tying it.

Now you need to line up your cords with the shorter ones on the inside and the longer ones on the outside. If you cannot get them to line up just right, you will need to untie your knot and retie it with the cords lined up better.
You will now start tying your half square knots. You will do this by first making a loop with the cord to the far right. Bring the cord underneath the first two cords to the left and over the last one.
Bring the cord on your far left over the two middle cords and through the loop.
You will continue to do this repeatedly until you reach an inch in length, which will be about 17 knots. You will now string your first bead on the two middle cords. Tie the two outer cords underneath the bead and continue these steps until you have knotted 6 ½ inches.

At this point, you may attach a pendent to your necklace by stringing it onto the bottom cord. You will continue to knot and bead for another 6 ½ inches.
You are now almost done and you will tie another overhand knot at the end. Be sure to apply glue as you are tying it. You will have some left over length and you should cut the excess cords about 5 inches from the overhand knot so you have plenty of length to adjust and tie with.
You are now done and you have made a great hemp necklace!

www.infozabout.com
www.crafts.infozabout.com