When it comes to making hemp jewelry and finding the beads or pendants you want can be tricky. Why? Because you have to find ones that have big enough holes in them to fit through your hemp twine.

A couple questions to ask yourself when hunting for hemp jewelry beads:

1. How many cords am I going to using as knot bearers?
2. What is the thickness of the cords I am using?

Size of Beads

Let me back up a minute. Beads come in different sizes and are listed as “mm” sizes. The mm stands for how big the center hole is. The larger the number, the larger the hole size. I mostly try to look for beads that are 8 mm size and up. If I am using smaller sized cord, and only one strand, I can get away with using smaller sized beads.

I have found a bead chart that is a good reference for you. It is in pdf form, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to download it.  Adobe Acrobat is free to download.

How Many Cords?

You need to know how many cords you are going to use as knot bearers. If you are using one cord, you won’t need too large of a hole in your beads. If you are using two, you need larger holes for beads. I know it seems trivial, but when starting my adventure in hemp jewelry, I did not take this into account. I would find the coolest beads, buy the wrong size and have to make a trip to exchange them.

Thickness of Cord

You must also take in to consideration the thickness of your cord. If you are using 20# test hemp, of course you can get away with using smaller sized beads. If you are using the thicker hemp, 48# or higher, you need larger beads! I know, once again, trivial, but important.

Of course, a lot of it is trial and error. But if you have a basis of what you are looking for, it helps.  If you have any suggestions or questions, please leave a comment or contact me!

Happy Knotting