Easy Wooden Beads

I needed some simple Wooden Beads to finish a pendant, so I made some myself. It took me under 5 minutes to make a handful of them! So that’s a really neat quick tip for you. 🙂

You need:

wooden twigs
pruning shears
sandpaper
woodworking drill (available here*)
waxed cotton cord (available here*)

How it’s done:

You can use all sorts of different twigs for this craft. Just ensure that they are dry and not too freshly cut. I used willow because the bark is smooth and the sticks are easy to cut.

Cut the twigs into little pieces with pruning shears. The shears should have a sharp edge, otherwise you won’t get a clean cut. You could also use a small saw. If you want all of your beads so be the same size, you should mark the twig beforehand with a ruler. I didn’t bother with that.

Sand the cuts with some fine sandpaper. If your pruning shears are sharp enough you should barely have to sand anything.

Secure the wooden pieces into a vise to drill them.

Use a small woodworking drill bit. It has a small spur at the tip to keep the drill bit in line. I used my trusty proxxon drill (available here*) for that.

That’s it! You can thread the wooden beads on a string. If you want to, seal the surface of the beads with some transparent varnish.

The beads are perfect for rustic necklaces, bracelets or pendants. A waxed cotton cord (available here*) looks great with the wooden beads. I bet they would also look really nice if they were painted in different colors!