DIY Tiered Pearl Necklace

I’ve always been all about substantial, intricate necklaces. So I knew that for a magical, old timey wedding I could really go all out! I spent some time browsing around stores, and bridal necklaces weren’t too bad.. At least there were lots of pearls. But there was nothing with the antique feel I wanted. So briefly looked at antique stores but there just wasn’t much to choose from, and nothing of the size I was looking for. And I didn’t want to shell out thousands for something I might just wear once. So I made my own :)

I found inspiration on Pinterest from pictures of queens in the Edwardian era. They just had this regal glamour that really appealed to me. And the Edwardian era (1900-1910) is sort of a good fit for a Harry Potter wedding, because it’s old enough that it feels magical and antiquey… but it is also recent enough that clothing silhouettes were starting to resemble those we know today.

Princess Alice in tiered pearl necklaces
Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (last surviving child of Queen Victoria), in 1911, sporting the typical tiered pearl necklace popular with royalty at the time.

Materials

I was able to get everything for the necklaces at the craft chain, Michael’s. It’s mostly standard necklace-making stuff so I think most would be available at most craft stores. I got:

- regular necklace plastic line
- two sets of TRIPLE line clasps
- those little metal tubes you crimp to seal two threads together (already had pliers at home that I used)
- cameo (not real shell)
- some intricate in-between “chrome” effect bits (tall rectangles for the top, tall enough to span three tiers, and little + shaped ones for the middle string in the bottom necklace)
- a bunch of strings of pearls. The off-white, not the white. But then I bought all their off-white and had to substitute with a few white ones, but it actually worked really well. I got two sizes, mostly large ones but a few smaller ones too. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if I bought out all the large ones haha.

Top Half

The top half of the necklace (a choker) consisted of three strings, two chrome divider pieces, and a large cameo piece in the middle. I used a triple clasp in the back so the whole thing stayed together. I followed the standard instructions for stringing pearls and attaching a clasp, and since I didn’t take good pictures of the steps, I won’t get into the details here. But, triple clasp is key.

The top should sit like a choker, so I did a lot of measuring and testing on my neck to determine the ideal string length. All three strings were cut to the same length.

The divider pieces only had attachments for the top and bottom string, so the middle one kind of slid around, and the pearls had to be re-arranged into place a few times. To accommodate the round shape of the cameo, I had one less pearl on the middle string on either side of it. I used all large pearls for this necklace.

Pearl necklace with cameo
The top part of the necklace.

Triple clasps
Doing up the two triple clasps of both necklaces. Credit: Gucio Photography

Bottom Half

The bottom half was a separate necklace, also containing three strings of pearls and a triple clasp. Because this one was meant to sit below the other, it was much longer. Each string was longer than that above and contained more pearls. The top and bottom string consisted of the larger pearls. The middle string was more intricate, and used the smaller sized pearls. The pattern was:
- two cream pearls – two white pearls – two cream pearls – +shaped chrome divider
(repeat along full length)

Hands holding pearl necklace
The bottom necklace in its full splendor. Credit: Gucio Photography

Intricate pearl necklace on neck
This is the best picture I have which shows the pattern on the middle string of the bottom necklace. You can see the mixed pattern of white and cream pearls.

Finished Product

Both necklaces were worn at once. Because the lower necklace was much longer, it naturally sat lower on the neck.

Pearl necklaces on silver platters
Artsy shot of the necklaces on our DIY dessert platter (described in another post) Credit: Gucio Photography

Pearl necklace with cameo
Detail of the top necklace featuring the cameo. Credit: Gucio Photography

Written by Ola Potter~Wedding

Hi, My name is Ola and I got married to my wonderful husband in 2013. We both love Harry Potter so we decided to make it our wedding theme! It went off beautifully and I want to share our hard work with all you lovely people! I also run the dress up games website, Doll Divine ~

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