Nursing Necklace

Have you ever heard of nursing necklaces? I never had until recently when I stumbled across a blog post on it. A nursing necklace is basically a very sturdy, colorful necklace that you wear while nursing to distract your baby and give them something to play with if need be. Often they have a safety clasp that will come undone if your baby pulls particularly hard. They're usually rather chunky too. Some are designed more for kids and others are designed to be really fashionable for mommy.

I really wish that I had had one of these when Daniel was younger b/c he is the classic case of distraction while nursing. He took great delight in pinching me incessantly (often right on a very tender nerve), kicking, pulling and biting, hair grabbing, teeth and lip examinations, grabbing for my glasses etc.!!! If my next child is anything like Daniel I'm hopeful that a necklace like this would at least be slightly distracting to him or her!
So, here are the instructions for making the necklace should you decide to make one for yourself. There are some safety cautions to consider, mainly that the beads be safe for your baby to chew on because you know that will happen at some point!

Instructions taken from http://www.blogger.com/www.blisstree.com.
You’ll need the following supplies:
10 - 12mm barrel-shaped onyx beads
8 - 3mm sterling daisy spacer beads & 1 - 8mm sterling tube bea
1 - sterling southwestern style charm
36 inches of rat-tail
2 - 2×2mm crimp beads
flat-nosed pliers or crimping pliers
Scissors
12 inches of .014 beading wire

1) Secure a crimp bead to one end of the beading wire, and start to thread on beads and charm alternating stone beads with daisy spacers, and making sure to position the charm in the middle so there are 5 onyx beads on either side.

Note: Make sure the loop on the beading wire that goes back through the crimp bead is large enough so that you can thread the rat-tail through it later.

Another note: I usually use crimping pliers because I like the way that looks better. However, newbie jewelry makers may want to use flat-nosed pliers and just flatten the crimping bead down with these. It can take a good deal of practice to be able to use crimping pliers. For that reason, I flattened them in the piece pictured for this project.

 

2) Once you get all the beads in the right order on your beading wire, secure the other end of the wire with another crimp bead. Again, like I said in my previous note, feel free to use flat-nosed pliers to flatten them.

3) Now insert one end of the rat-tail through both loops of beading wire, and pull so that the rat-tail is doubled.




4) Holding both piece of tail together, tie an overhand knot, and push the knot so it’s up against the wire loops.

5) Thread on the sterling tube bead over both pieces of tail, push it down against the previous knot, and tie another overhand knot pushing it up against the tube bead.

6) Finish with one more overhand knot on the end of both tails, which will tie them together, and trim off excess tail. This is worn to go over your head.

The final length between the end knot and the next knot up against the tube bead is 24 inches. If you’d like this larger, just start with a longer piece of rat-tail. The length of the entire piece is about 30 inches long.