Coco Chanel Inspired
Drinking Straw Necklace

The face and style of Coco Chanel subtly entice in this bold neckpiece.

Dress it up, or dress it down, YOU are what makes it glamorous!

Materials

In this craft, as with any, your results can vary as much as your materials and imagination. I will offer you guidance based on the exact materials that I used.

10 black drinking straws
(the hostess at California Pizza Kitchen was kind enough to donate for a craft project)
Triple Thick Glaze
foam brush
jewelry chain
(approximately 20 inches for necklace base, 50 inches for beading straws)
lobster clasp (1)
jump rings (33),
head pins (50)
pearl beads (22)
white seed beads
bead caps or bead dividers
(must have larger diameter than straws, with hole smaller than seed beads)
clear gift wrap tape
scissors
small round nose pliers
needle nose pliers or wire cutters (not shown)
ruler
pen/pencil
paper for sketching guidance (not shown)
Small square of floral foam or styrofoam for drying glazed straws (not shown)

2 letter sized printouts of LorrainesGraphiques’ “Coco Chanel Skinny Tags” available for purchase here.

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Instructions

This craft starts out very similarly to the Drinking Straw Bracelet of Paper Crafting 101, but alternate tips and ideas are offered here. This gorgeous necklace has a lot of steps, but I will break it down into easy to follow sections.

A. Sketching

B. Wrap and Glaze Straws

C. Measure and Cut

D. Making Straw Beads

E. Attaching Beads and Finishing Touches

F. Alternate Styles and Ideas

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A. SKETCHING

I did a lot of sketching before coming to a final concept. I’m no sketch artist, but was able to work out the logistics and engineering to be prepared in purchasing supplies. This was my final sketch. I used it to figure out bead numbers, design, length, etc. It was my base for the whole project.

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B. WRAP AND GLAZE STRAWS

1. Wrapping the straws begins with cutting. The Coco Chanel Skinny Tags offer a perfect size and guides to start cutting. Just cut around the edges to for long triangles. I used two sheets (10 tags each), to end up with 20 paper strips.

--> 2. Stick clear wrapping tape to the long edge of one paper strip and attach to the long edge of a straw, near the top.

3. Use two paper strips per straw, and try to butt them up against one another to save straw space as well as saving you steps cutting after the glaze has dried. Continue until all paper strips have been attached.

--> 4. Prepare your work area for glazing with paper-ready straws, Triple Thick glaze, foam brush, and floral foam. The floral foam easily gives to the end of the straws and holds it tightly and upright for drying. This isn’t mandatory, but with the longer lengths of the paper strips, laying them across a tub (as in Drinking Straw Bracelet) is a…sticky...situation.

--> 5. Use the glaze as a glue and dab the Triple Thick on the long, loose edge of the paper strip. You want to use it sparingly. Gushing out the edge after rolling the paper will just make a mess.

6. Using your fingers, carefully roll the paper tightly around the straw. These skinny tags are slightly more difficult than doing a longer strip of paper. Watch your edges and keep them tight.

--> 7. Do this with each prepared straw (10) until all straws have been wrapped.

--> 8. Now you will start glazing. Hold the short end of the straw and generously paint Triple Thick Glaze up and down the paper-wrapped straw. If you printed on an ink jet printer (versus laser printer), rubbing too vigorously may cause the inks to bleed.

--> 9. Place the wet and sticky glazed straw into the floral foam to dry. Glaze all 10 straws. Glaze dries pretty quickly, but will stay tacky for few hours.

--> C. MEASURE & CUT

--> 1. Once the glazed straws have dried completely, cut each paper strip section from the straw. Trim the ends, and cut at the seam. It’s okay to trim some of the paper off. It will offer a more clean cut, and you will ultimately be cutting them down to size for the necklace.

--> 2. Okay, bring out your sketching!! It’s time to cut your paper straws into beads. I diagrammed my sizes to use as a template and follow as I cut. The full length of the paper strip is 9mm, so I used that as my center bead and base measurement. I went down by .5mm increments from there, down to 1mm. This allots 16 beads on either side of the 9mm center bead.

--> 3. Measure each increment from 1mm to 8.5, mark, and cut. This is where you end up with options. You will be choosing which photo beads will lay next to each other, as well as which end and where to cut. The more choosey you are with your cutting, the more you may want to plan in advance and make more paper-wrapped straws to accommodate your photo preference. Most of my beads have the face of Coco Chanel in them, but others are the, uh…short straws and have only abstract patterns of her lower body, dress, pearls, etc.

--> 4. As I cut, I laid my pieces on my diagram sketch to keep myself organized.

5. This is my final cut station with all my beads and mess!

D. MAKING STRAW BEADS

--> 1. In this necklace, there are three bead types. I have deemed them, 2-pearl, 1-pearl and no-pearl. The straws can organize themselves by size, but not by bead type. I marked my diagram (based on my sketch) which straw would become which bead type (marked as "0", "1", or "2"). I then separated them into small containers. This way, I can simply create each of the bead types in batches and not mix up which size is which bead type.

--> 2. This entire section requires a lot of headpin loops. If you are not familiar, you may want to practice on some loose headpins. Rounded nosed pliers work best, but standard needle nose pliers from the tool box work, it just may not be as "pretty". You will need something to cut the wires too though. This is a headpin loop. There are photos following with live details.

-->3. Again, I prepare my station for beading and jewelry making, collecting all of my supplies and cleaning up my last few sections.

4. I started with the 2-pearl beads. I figure they are the hardest and most difficult, so it can only get easier from here! I sketched a diagram of each bead type to allow for greater ease in engineering each bead as I am building them.

Order of Findings:

jump ring
headpin loop
seed bead
pearl
bead cap/spacer
headpin loop
chain|
|
chain
headpin loop
|
bead cap/spacer
pearl
seed bead
headpin

Materials Used in One 2-pearl Bead
1 jump ring
1 cut wrapped straw
2 pearl beads
2 seed beads
2 bead caps/spacers
2 headpins
chain, approximately 1mm less than straw

5. String the headpin with the seed bead first, then the pearl bead, then the bead cap. Trim half the headpin. You may be able to use the other half on the opposite end if you keep your loops tight and allow wiggle room with your length of chain.

The next 8 steps apply to both the 2-pearl bead and the 1-pearl bead, with the exception being in THIS STEP, omitting the pearl bead. A sketch will be provided in Step 13.

6. Attach one end of the chain with a headpin loop. With some of the short beads, no chain is necessary, and the really short ones can be completed with a single headpin.

7. Slide the second headpin or leftover piece through the last link on the attached chain.

8. Secure the headpin to the chain with a headpin loop. Trim the head off the pin.

9. You now have the chain length that will hold the bead on to the necklace chain.

10. Thread this piece through the straw. The bead cap should be large enough here to NOT go through the straw (you might want to take a straw with you to the store when choosing your bead cap!).

11. Now add the top embellishments for the bead.

11. The final step for this bead type is to secure all of the pieces by ending with a headpin loop. Pull the wire taut to help keep the beads secure. If you pull too tight, the straw will bend under pressure, or you can bread beads when creating loops, as well as breaking the headpin. Worse case, you just re-string it!

12. Continue Steps 5-11 for the rest of the 2-pearl beads. The 1-pearl beads are the same with the exclusion of the bottom bead. I got excited and attached my center bead, but I will discuss that in Section E.

13. Continue Steps 5-11 for the rest of the 2-pearl beads. The 1-pearl beads are the same with the exclusion of the bottom bead.

Order of Findings:

jump ring
headpin loop
seed bead
pearl
bead cap/spacer
headpin loop
chain|
|
chain
headpin loop
|
bead cap/spacer
seed bead
headpin

Materials Used in One 1-pearl Bead
1 jump ring
1 cut wrapped straw
1 pearl bead
2 seed beads
2 bead caps/spacers
2 headpins
chain, approximately 1mm less than straw

13. Using Steps 5-11, thread the 1-pearl beads. Here is a visual of the thread and final bead.

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14. Now we will create the final bead type, the no-pearl bead.

Materials Used in One 1-pearl Bead
1 jump ring
1 cut wrapped straw
1 seed beads
1 bead cap/spacer
1 headpins
chain approximately length of straw

15. As with 1-pearl beads, thread the seed bead and bead cap onto the headpin. This time, keep the headpin long, depending on the bead length. Ultimately, you don't want any headpin coming out of the top, and you DO want a several chain links sticking out of the top. Thread the bead.

16. The finished no-pearl beads will be loose until they are attached to the necklace chain. These are my no-pearl beads and the resulting mess.

E. ATTACHING BEADS & FINISHING TOUCHES

--> 1. Find the center of your necklace chain (I had one chain for the main necklace and another for the beads). Open a jump ring using opposing pressure, and loop it around the longest center bead and the center necklace link.

2. Now that you have your center, lay the necklace down and arrange your beads in order.

3. Based on your bead and chain sizes, count out how many links of chain you need for the top of the no-pearl bead. Line up the tops of the straws (not the bead caps or pearl beads), pull the excess chain from the no-pearl bead, and count how many lengths you need (not including a jump ring) to reach the necklace chain. For me, it was three links. This number should be uniform across all no-pearl beads. Trim the excess links with wire cutters.

4. You will now attach the beads one at a time. The 1-pearl and 2-pearl beads attach with the headpin loop and a jump ring. The no-pearl beads attach with a jump ring hooked on the last link of the chain as seen below.

5. Start attaching the beads working outward from the center. Attach the beads to the necklace as close together as possible without creating an overlap. There was not a perfect pattern for my chain (every other or every three, etc.). I checked and eye-balled each one.

6. After bead number 33, you get a medal AND a cookie! You are ALMOST done! You just need to add the back closure. Put the necklace around your neck to measure size. I marked my measurements with masking tape. Cut the excess chain.

7. Use a jump ring to attach the lobster clasp on one end.

7. My lobster clasps came with larger jump rings, so I attached that to my measurement on the other end of the necklace. You could cut the excess chain, or leave it and add an embellishment. I left the excess chain to offer an adjustable fit and used a headpin, seed bead, and pearl bead to add a pearl dangle on the end.