Clay Bead Necklace Ideas - 3 Ways * Moms and Crafters

If you’re looking for some fresh clay bead necklace ideas, these three fresh options are totally beginner friendly! Find more jewelry crafts for every occasion. This post contains affiliate links.

Clay heishi beads have taken over the beaded friendship bracelet craze – and it’s legit. They are inexpensive, lightweight, and still look so classy! Their matte finish and often muted colors make for gorgeous, affordable, wearable, and easy jewelry.

But what about necklaces?

I decided to share with you three unique clay bead necklace ideas using heishi beads. These are the same beads that I used in my beaded wristlet keychain tutorial – so go ahead and make that too!

clay bead necklace in three different styles

First of all, what exactly are heishi beads, and do you need them to make these clay bead necklace ideas?

Heishi refers to the flat, smooth disc beads that come in many different materials – but are very often made from clay. You can get them in gemstones and they’ll have more weight.

All of these ideas can be done with heishi beads of any material. In fact, I even mixed it up with metal on two of the styles!

However, only the bar necklace and the linked one can easily be done with clay beads of any sort. For the pendant style, you’ll need a larger jumpring (and the one I used was already quite large.

3 Clay Bead Necklace Ideas

When trying to figure out which necklaces are best to make with clay heishi beads, I start by thinking in terms of my typical necklace styles. But heishi beads are very different, and clay beads in particular are as well.

Heishi beads have a much narrower visible space than your typical bead.

Clay beads are also very lightweight and don’t settle or hang much.

With that in mind, I did play around a little bit and created three styles of clay bead necklace ideas that worked great:

A bar necklace – this sits in the center of a mostly-chain necklace, adding class to it. It sits quite nicely on the neck and looks great as a shorter or mid-length necklace.

On this one, I interspersed it with metal disc spacers as well to add a bit of glam.

Linked necklace – Here, I made small single-color links of clay beads and joined them with fancy jump rings – though you can try other links too!

You can try this one linked all the way around, or finish it off with a more comfortable chain like I did. I find that clay beads tend to get a bit scratchy on the neck, and this is a bit more comfortable.

This clay bead necklace idea can be worn shorter or longer, depending on how you like it. You can make it super long if you do clay links all around instead of the chain.

Tiny pendant – If you’re getting tired of stringing on all those tiny clay beads, but maybe want to match up a set, you can make these tiny pendants.

Since they’re so small, I recommend them on shorter or medium chains – but not chokers. You can definitely also turn these into earrings. The charm in the center is optional – but it adds a lot of, you know, charm.

How to make clay bead necklaces

Of course, I’m sharing very specifically how I did these, however, switch them up as needed to add your own style or improve on it as you’d like.

You’ll need

Jewelry pliers: round nose, chain nose, flush cutters. I used bail making pliers, but regular round nose pliers will do.
20-gauge beading wire
Clay heishi beads
Metal heishi beads (disc spacers)
Fancy jumprings – look for thick, large, sturdy ones (link and pendant style only)
Regular jumprings
Chain by the yard – paperclip/long link chain is so pretty!
Spring ring clasp
Pendant bail (pendant only)
Optional charm (pendant only)

Clay bead necklace idea 1 – bar necklace

1. Cut a piece of wire a few inches long. It should be at least an inch longer than you want your beaded portion to be, but be generous – you can trim, you can’t add.

Make a small loop at the end.

cutting the wire for the clay bead necklace

2. String on your clay beads.

I did blocks of a few at a time in different colors and placed metal spacers in between.

3. When you’re satisfied, trim off the excess besides for about 8-10 mm, and form a loop at the end. Slightly curve your bar.

4. Figure out the total desired length of your necklace. Subtract an inch for the clasp. Subtract the width of your beaded bar. Cut two equal pieces of chain to make up your final size.

5. Open your loop slightly, slide on the chain, and close it. Repeat on the other side.

adding the chain to the clay bead necklace

6. Add a clasp using a jump ring. On the other side, connect a few jump rings to make the clasp easier to close (and adjustable in length).

Clay bead necklace idea 2 – links

1. Make a loop at the end of your wire.

2. Trim it to about 2 inches. Add a few beads to make up the length you want your link to be.

3. Trim your wire, leaving about 8-10 m,m and then make another loop.

5. Create as many links as you’d like on your final necklace (depending on how much of it you want beaded vs. just chain).

6. On this one, I did the chain a bit differently. This method is best if you want to actually measure it on yourself for length. Attach a fancy jumpring to the end link of your spool of chain. Connect a clay bead link to that. Keep linking jumprings and links, alternating between the two. Finish with an open jump ring.

connecting the clay bead links and the fancy jumprings

7. Place the entire thing around your neck to figure out how much chain to cut. Figure about an inch for the clasp and connector. Cut your chain and connect it to the last jumpring.