BoHo Beads

I am an avid "Pinterest Peruser."

I have many boards on my Pinterest account and love to look over the pins for inspiration.

I have recently been looking for BoHo (read Bohemian) decor ideas as our daughter is moving to California and wants to decorate in this style.  While I know that it is readily found in stores right now (it's popular), I wanted to save money and tackle a few of the ideas on my own. 

It all started with this pin:

Credit

Home Made Lovely has a great tutorial for making this specific beaded decor, complete with a Ray Dunn inspired tag.  Darling Daughter (DD) wanted something similar, but with more of the BoHo and less of the farmhouse feel.

Here's how I did it.

I started with these 20mm Natural wood balls (Amazon) and some kitchen twine.  I liked the softer, thinner strands of the twine as opposed to the rougher hemp twine used in the inspiration photo.  It's definitely a matter of preference.

I also had a pair of large sharp scissors, regular scotch tape, a pair of tweezers, a small orange bead from a previous project (optional), a notepad, and space to work.

I began wrapping the twine around the width of the notepad, multiple times until I had the desired thickness for my tassel.

You can use any hard rectangular object to create your tassel, just decide the length, and that will determine if you use that object (like my notepad) on its side or length.  The longer length will mean a longer tassel.

Once I was done the wrapping, I looped a long piece of twine through the top of the strands PRIOR to removing it from the notebook.  This is important, otherwise, you could miss a loop and then you have a mess on your hands.

I carefully slid it off the notepad, laying it gently on my work surface so as not to tangle the loops.

I tied a sharp knot on top to hold those loops securely in place.

I then grabbed about an inch from the knot and squeezed to form the top "ball" of the tassel.

I used a long piece of twine to knot it in place, then carefully wrapped those pieces around to create a nice neat and orderly configuration of twine.  

I tied and cut a sharp knot at the base.

Then I used tweezers to carefully push that knot up into the wrapped twine.

Using my sharp scissors, I cut the bottom loops and gave them a neat trim until they were all the same length.

A little shake and the tassel was complete.

Next, I threaded an orange bead with the two strands of the top knot tie and proceeded to make a series of simple knots.  This will come in handy later on.

 I cut a super long piece of twine and doubled it over to create a stronger thread for my beads.

A bit of tape wrapped around the ends kept them together and made them easier to thread through the wooden beads.

I then threaded on 50 of the beads.

I taped the opposite end of my thread to my work surface so that my stringed beads would not come off.

Once I had all my beads on, I carefully tied each end to the tassel tie and wrapped them to form a similar configuration to the one I made on the tassel.

And just like that, I was done.

I loved it so much that I created an exact one for myself.

These beads are great for draping over objects in your decor.

I love the bare wood and how they highlight the other objects on this dresser.

You could even wear this as a necklace if you wanted.

I might order a few more beads and make that as well.

I just love breaking rules...

PS:  Stay tuned for my affordable fun BoHo projects for DD in upcoming posts.  I've been on a roll with crafting and creating lately.