I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the whole Farmhouse trend at the moment. I’m sure it’ll be a passing phase before we move on to something else. Although, to be honest I don’t really tend to follow trends. I just like what I like and go with it. My house, my rules! 😉 BUT at the moment I’m very much loving this wood bead garland with the cute little tassels at the end. They’re so easy to make and look great just draped over a vase for some detail. Or on top of a tray, just to add a bit of fun.
If I’ve converted you, why not try and make one of your own? I promise you, it’s not as hard as it looks!
here’s what you need for your wood bead garland
Wooden beads – I used 20 mm beads from Amazon – you can get them here. There’s 100 in a pack and I used 38 beads for a fairly long garland, so you’ll get a few garlands out of it.
Some string / twine
Pair of good scissors – you won’t regret these!
Some ribbon (optional)
Some sellotape (optional but super-helpful!)
how to make a No hassle tassel
I started off by making 2 tassels. It’s probably the fiddliest part of this project but if you can wrap string around your fingers and cut it (oh .. and tie a knot), you’ve so got this!
Get a ball of jute twine. I can’t remember where I bought mine, it was either The Range or B&Q, but Amazon (of course! .. they sell everything!!) do this one.
I wanted a fairly long tassel to match the long garland so I wrapped the jute around 4 fingers and did 20 rotations. Make sure the twine goes all the way to the bottom of your hand when you start (see on the right hand side on the pic above). When you’ve finished wrapping, just snip off the twine. This should be level with the loose string at the bottom.
Next, you cut off a long piece of twine and wrap it around the top of your looped strings (see pic 1 below). Leave a little bit of string sticking out so you can tie it in a knot when you’ve finished wrapping it. The little top loop will will create the top of your tassel. You will be putting the string through this little loop to secure it to the garland later, so make sure to leave a bit of room to pull the string through.
Tie a tight double knot when you’ve finished wrapping the string around to secure it in place (pic 2).
Next, you flip it over and with a sharp pair of scissors you cut through the bottom (larger) loop – see pic 3 below.
Wrap string around the top, creating a large and small loop 
Tie securely with a double knot 
Flip over and cut the strings of the larger loop
Your tassel should now look something like this:
Pretty cool, right? This particular tassel is made from a natural twine, but if you want something a bit more colourful, you can use embroidery thread. This would be great in red if you’re creating these for Christmas!
creating the wooden bead garland
This is the easy-peasy bit! I left my string on the ball, just to make sure I didn’t cut it too short. Now, normally, when threading beads with string, I start off with a nicely cut thread which soon gets frayed. So, I end up cutting the thread shorter and shorter. Who else is feeling my struggle?! Turns out there’s a great little trick! I only found out about this other day – why did I not know this before?! Get yourself a bit of sellotape and wrap it around the very end of the thread. Like this:
Wrapped sellotape 
How much easier?!
I know!! It’s not world changing, but in my little bead threading world it got me very excited. Anyway, it’s sooo much easier to thread those beads now. And no wastage! Whoop!
I threaded 38 beads onto the string (it’s quite a long garland as it’s going over quite a tall vase).
Adding the tassels
When you’ve finished threading, grab one of your tassels and pull the end of the string through the little top loop you created earlier. If you’re having difficulty finding the gap, carefully push a pencil through the loop to create yourself a little tunnel (see the 1st and 2nd pic).
Pull the string all the way through until the tassel reaches the beads and secure with a double knot. To make it a neat finish, take the end of your string and push it back through the two beads nearest the tassel and carefully snip off the end of the string. This will give it a nice clean finish without any string bits sticking out.
Secure next to the bead with a double knot 
Push the string back through the first bead 
and the second bead 
To get a clean finish
Follow the exact same process on the other side. You will want to leave a little bit of slack between the beads (not too much!) if you want them to sit crossed over on a base or jar.
And that’s it! You can add a small bit of ribbon or other detail to the end of your tassel if you want to give it some more detail. As you can see, I added a small bit of neutral gingham which I think finishes it off nicely. I love the contrast of the simple beads against the colour of the vase. Will you be making one? If you do, don’t forget to tag me on social media – I’d love to see it!
By the way, if you want to see me make this wooden bead garland, you can catch it here on one of my regular Facebook Live videos. If you’ve got any questions, just pop it into the comments on Facebook. Or of course you can leave a comment in this post!
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Check it out on video
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